Paid Competitions & Hackathons Opportunities — page 2

Real paid competitions & hackathons opportunities — verified, not scraped junk. 58 real opportunities right now.

Current World Archaeology (CWA) Photo Competition

Current World Archaeology magazine

A photography competition celebrating archaeological sites and heritage worldwide, with winners receiving conference passes and a magazine feature.

📍 Global (online submission)PaidEasy

#competition#photography#archaeology

Apply → the-past.com

Environmental Photographer of the Year

Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM)

A photography award recognizing images that capture the human relationship with the environment, spanning categories from climate change to conservation.

📍 Global (online submission)PaidMedium

#competition#photography#environment

Apply → eposeyeoftheday.com

Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest at Smithsonian Magazine

Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest

Smithsonian Magazine

An annual photography contest across categories like natural world, travel, and people, with a notable grand prize and category winners featured in the magazine.

📍 Global (online submission)PaidMedium

#competition#photography#global

Apply → smithsonianmag.com

Sony World Photography Awards at World Photography Organisation / Sony

Sony World Photography Awards

World Photography Organisation / Sony

One of the largest global photography competitions, spanning professional, open, student, and youth categories, with winners announced at a London ceremony and gear prizes.

📍 Global (online); ceremony in LondonPaidMedium

#competition#photography#global

Apply → worldphoto.org

Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition at Nikon

Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition

The world's leading photomicrography competition, recognizing the best images and videos captured through a light microscope, with a substantial grand prize.

📍 Global (online submission)PaidHard

#competition#photography#science

Apply → nikonsmallworld.com

World Trade Organization Essay Award for Young Economists

World Trade Organization

An essay award encouraging original economic research on international trade policy, open to PhD students and young researchers, with a cash prize and possible publication.

📍 Global (online submission)PaidHard

#competition#essay#economics

Apply → wto.org

Jane Austen Society of North America Essay Contest

Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA)

A literary-analysis essay contest on Jane Austen's novels across three academic levels (high school, college, graduate), with cash prizes for each category.

📍 Global (online submission)PaidMedium

#competition#essay#literature

Apply → jasna.org

Cambridge Re:think Essay Competition

University of Cambridge (Hughes Hall)

An essay competition spanning moral, political, scientific, and philosophical prompts for secondary school students, with a substantial combined cash prize pool.

📍 Global (online submission)PaidMedium

#competition#essay#cambridge

Apply → rethinkessaycompetition.wordpress.com

St Hugh's College Sixth Form Essay Competitions

University of Oxford (St Hugh's College)

A set of multi-subject essay competitions for secondary school students on Oxford-style set questions, offering cash prizes and academic feedback.

📍 Global (online submission)PaidMedium

#competition#essay#oxford

Apply → st-hughs.ox.ac.uk

The Queen's Commonwealth Essay Competition at Royal Commonwealth Society

The Queen's Commonwealth Essay Competition

Royal Commonwealth Society

The world's oldest international schools' writing competition, inviting essays on Commonwealth-related themes across junior and senior age categories, with winners honored at a London ceremony.

📍 Global (online); ceremony in LondonPaidMedium

#competition#essay#commonwealth

Apply → thercs.org

Ayn Rand Institute Essay Contests (Anthem, Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged)

Ayn Rand Institute

A set of annual essay contests open to students on Ayn Rand's novels Anthem, The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged, each with a tiered cash prize pool and separate age brackets.

📍 Global (online submission)PaidMedium

#competition#essay#literature

Apply → aynrand.org

UNESCO Clubs Worldwide Multimedia Contest

A multimedia (video, essay, or art) competition inviting youth to propose ways their community can advance a specific UN Sustainable Development Goal, with a US-based youth camp invitation for top entries.

📍 Global (online submission)PaidEasy

#competition#sdgs#multimedia

Apply → unescocentre.org.uk

UNESCO-UNEVOC Skills in Action Photo Competition

A photography competition documenting technical and vocational skills development around the world, intended to highlight the human side of workforce training.

📍 Global (online submission)PaidEasy

#competition#photography#vocational-education

Apply → unevoc.unesco.org

Smart India Hackathon

Government of India (Ministry of Education)

India's largest national hackathon, where student teams build working solutions to real problem statements submitted by government ministries and industry partners over a 36-hour build.

📍 IndiaPaidHard

#hackathon#india#team

Apply → sih.gov.in

Microsoft Imagine Cup

A global student technology competition where teams build a working product using Microsoft's cloud and AI tools, with mentorship and a path to Microsoft's startup programs.

📍 Global (online, world finals in-person)PaidHard

#competition#technology#startup

Apply → imaginecup.microsoft.com

Samsung Solve for Tomorrow at Samsung

Samsung Solve for Tomorrow

A competition challenging students to design a product, app, or service idea that solves a real-world community problem, with incubation support for finalist teams.

📍 Multiple countriesPaidMedium

#competition#innovation#product-design

Apply → samsung.com

IBM Master the Mainframe Challenge at IBM

IBM Master the Mainframe Challenge

A three-level self-paced learning competition teaching mainframe computing fundamentals, with travel stipends and scholarships awarded to top performers.

📍 Global (online)PaidMedium

#competition#mainframe#coding

Apply → ibm.com

International Youth Math Challenge (IYMC) at International Youth Math Challenge

International Youth Math Challenge (IYMC)

International Youth Math Challenge

A multi-round online mathematics competition open to school and college students worldwide, progressing from qualifiers through pre-finals to a final round.

📍 Global (online)PaidMedium

#competition#mathematics#online

Apply → iymc.info

NASA CineSpace Short Film Competition

NASA / Houston Cinema Arts Society

A short film competition requiring entrants to incorporate real NASA footage or imagery into an original narrative, screened at a Houston film festival.

📍 Global (submission); festival in Houston, USAPaidMedium

#competition#film#nasa

Apply → hcasociety.org

NASA Deep Space Food Challenge

NASA / Canadian Space Agency

A challenge inviting teams to design novel food-production technologies capable of feeding astronauts on years-long deep space missions with minimal resource input.

📍 Global (online submission)PaidHard

#competition#space#food-science

Apply → deepspacefoodchallenge.org

The Geneva Challenge

Geneva Graduate Institute

An annual team competition inviting graduate students worldwide to propose pragmatic, evidence-based solutions to a pressing global development problem, judged by an expert panel in Geneva.

📍 Geneva, SwitzerlandPaidHard

#competition#policy#graduate

Apply → thegenevachallenge.ch

CERN Beamline for Schools Competition

An international competition where teams of high schoolers design a real particle-physics experiment, with winning teams traveling to run their experiment on an actual CERN beamline.

📍 Geneva, Switzerland (winning trip)PaidHard

#competition#physics#team

Apply → beamlineforschools.cern

IBM Call for Code Global Challenge at IBM

IBM Call for Code Global Challenge

A global hackathon-style challenge inviting developers to build open-source technology solutions to pressing humanitarian and climate problems, with a substantial prize pool.

📍 Global (online submission)PaidMedium

#hackathon#open-source#social-impact

Apply → developer.ibm.com

MIT Solve Global Challenges

An open innovation platform that runs annual challenges (health, climate, economic prosperity, learning) and connects selected Solver teams with funding, mentorship, and MIT's network.

📍 Global (online application)PaidMedium

#competition#social-impact#funding

Apply → solve.mit.edu

Hello Tomorrow Global Challenge at Hello Tomorrow

Hello Tomorrow Global Challenge

A global deep-tech startup competition connecting founders working on hard-science solutions (energy, biotech, materials, etc.) with investors, corporates, and a large cash prize pool.

📍 Global (finals in Paris)PaidHard

#competition#deep-tech#startup

Apply → hello-tomorrow.org

James Dyson Award

James Dyson Foundation

An international student design-engineering award recognizing inventions that solve real problems, judged first nationally and then by James Dyson himself at the international stage.

📍 Global (submission by country)PaidMedium

#competition#design#engineering

Apply → jamesdysonaward.org

The Earth Prize at The Earth Prize Foundation

The Earth Prize

The Earth Prize Foundation

A global environmental innovation competition for teenage teams to design solutions to real sustainability problems, with a large combined prize pool for students, mentors, and schools.

📍 Global (online submission)PaidMedium

#competition#sustainability#team

Apply → theearthprize.org

Breakthrough Junior Challenge

Breakthrough Prize Foundation

A global video competition inviting teens to explain a challenging concept in life sciences, physics, or mathematics in an engaging short film, with a major scholarship as the top prize.

📍 Global (online submission)PaidMedium

#competition#science-communication#scholarship

Apply → breakthroughjuniorchallenge.org

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