Research Challenge

CFA Institute Research Challenge

The CFA Institute Research Challenge is an annual global competition that connects university students with investment professionals from within the CFA Society^® network. The competition provides students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis and ethics and tests participants' analytical, valuation, reporting writing, and presentation skills.

Members of our society, along with a faculty advisor and an industry mentor, work with teams of students to value a stock, write a research report, and present their recommendations. Teams then compete with peers from other schools at local-level competitions organized and judged by CFA Society members and volunteers. The winning university team(s) from each local competition then advances to see who will become the sub-regional, regional, and global champions.

Learn more and read FAQs See the schedule and get involved

Overview

The CFA Institute Research Challenge offers students the unique opportunity to develop and present an equity research report and compete on a global basis. Students will learn from leading industry experts and their mentors and peers from the world's top business schools. This annual educational initiative is designed to promote best practices in equity research among the next generation of analysts through hands-on mentoring and intensive training in company analysis and presentation skills.

The CFA Institute Research Challenge is an annual global competition which provides university students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis and professional ethics. Each student participant will be tested on their analytic, valuation, report writing and presentation skills and gain real-world experience as they assume the role of a research analyst.

The CFA Societies of Cincinnati, Columbus and Dayton Ohio will host Southern Ohio CFA Institute Research Challenge. Teams of three to five students from Ohio’s leading universities and business schools will compete for a place in the sub-regional final taking place in March 2026. The successful team will then compete in the Americas Semifinal in April, with the top 5-6 teams competing in the Regional and Global Finals in May 2026.