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

Each Research Challenge season leverages the efforts of over:

4,000+

Member Volunteers

from

150+

CFA Societies

and

6,200+

Students

attending

1,100+

Universities

What it Is

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

How it Works

Local level competitions are organized and judged by CFA Society® members and volunteers who function as local hosts.

The winning university team from each local competition advances to one of the three regional competitions.

The regional and global competitions are hosted by CFA Institute in the Americas; the Asia Pacific; and the Europe, Middle East, and Africa regions. The winning teams from each regional competition advance to the Global Final, where one team emerges as the global champion.

How to Get Involved

The Research Challenge provides all participants – both individuals and organizations – with incredible opportunities to get involved.

Students: Find out if your university participates by asking your professor, our Society, or checking the participating universities list. You don’t need to be a CFA Program Candidate to join the Research Challenge.
Universities: Form your team and give students the opportunity to compete against their peers and gain real-world experience.
Employers: Become a judge, mentor, grader, speaker, or corporate sponsor.

Get involved!

Boot Camp

CFA Society Portugal proudly presents the innovative Boot Camp tailored for the 2024 Research Challenge teams! This dynamic and immersive program has been meticulously designed to empower and equip participating teams with the essential skills and knowledge required to excel in the esteemed Research Challenge. Positioned as a potential game-changer in the realm of this competition, the Boot Camp delivers a comprehensive training experience that seamlessly integrates real-world perspectives and academic rigor.

Participants have the privilege of receiving a carefully crafted curriculum that encompasses a broad spectrum of financial subjects, spanning from equity analysis and financial modeling to report writing and presentation skills. Distinguished experts and seasoned practitioners from the finance industry have assumed the role of instructors, imparting priceless industry insights and guidance.

11th Edition (2025)

Congratulations to ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics & Management team, the big winner of ResearchChallenge Portuguese Local Final!

Alexander L., Lorenzo Pirola, Maria Morgado and Tommaso Marabini have claimed victory in the Portuguese Final of the CFA Research Challenge! Well done to you all, and best of luck as you go on to represent Portugal in the EMEA sub-regional final in April!

This year, for the first time, we had a second team qualify for the next stage of the competition. Congratulations, Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics team!

We can't miss the chance to congratulate all the other competing teams for their hard work. The quality keeps rising year after year!
FEP - Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do Porto

ISCTE Business School

Nova School of Business and Economics

Instituto Superior Técnico

For the teams that didn’t make it to this stage, we hope to see you again next year!
IPAM; Escola de Economia e Gestão - Universidade do Minho; ISCAL-Lisbon Accounting and Business School; Católica Porto Business School; Universidade de Aveiro; Coimbra Business School | ISCAC; FEUC - Faculdade de Economia da Universidade de Coimbra; Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do Algarve.

We would like to thank you to our esteemed judges (António Seladas, Filipe Rosa; Jorge Guimaraes, CFA), graders, mentors and faculty advisors (Gilberto Loureiro, Fábio Duarte, Paulo Alves, Vítor Mário Ribeiro, CFA, Gonçalo Sommer Ribeiro,CFA, Szabolcs Sebestyén, Luis Serra Coelho, Vasilya Benfeito, CFA, Catarina Proença, Mara Madaleno, Pedro Pinheiro; Victor Barros, Jose Carlos Tudela Martins), for their dedication and support in making this competition a success!

A huge thank you to CTT - Correios de Portugal, represented by João Calado, CFA and Nuno Vieira, for being the subject company of this year’s challenge, providing students with an invaluable opportunity to work on a real-world equity research case!

We are incredibly grateful to Euronext Lisboa, Isabel Ucha and André Francisquinho, for hosting this great final!

10th Edition (2024)

A huge round of applause to the champions of the Research Challenge 2024 Portuguese Final: the stellar team from Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics!

Your hard work and dedication have truly paid off!

A heartfelt thank you goes out to all the volunteers, mentor, graders, the evaluated company - NOS SGPS, represented by Maria João Carrapato, MBE and André Salvado, and our amazing sponsor KPMG represented by Ana Nunes and João Patrone, for their unwavering support and commitment to excellence.

Also a big thank you to the judges: António Seladas, Filipe Rosa, Jorge Guimaraes, CFA.

Special gratitude to Euronext Lisboa for graciously hosting the event, especially to Isabel Ucha and André Francisquinho.

Marcos Soares Ribeiro, CFA, Presidente of the CFA Society Portugal did the opening speech in this 10th Research Challenge edition.

Together, you've made this event an unforgettable success!

These were the universities competing this year:

· Católica Porto Business School

· Coimbra Business School | ISCAC

· Escola de Economia e Gestão - Universidade do Minho

· Universidade Católica Portuguesa

· FEP - Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do Porto

· Nova School of Business and Economics

· ISCTE - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa

· ISCAL - Lisbon Accounting and Business School School

· IPAM - Instituto Português de Administração de Marketing

· ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics & Management

· Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do Algarve

· ESTGA - Universidade de Aveiro

· FEUC - Faculdade de Economia da Universidade de Coimbra

· Instituto Superior Técnico

9th Edition (2023)

On the 10th of February, the CFA Society Portugal held the ninth edition of the Portuguese Competition of the Research Challenge.
The teams presented their research of Jerónimo Martins SGPS, represented at the event by Cláudia Falcão and Hugo Fernandes.

ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics & Management , FEP - Faculdade de Economia da Universidade do Porto, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, ISCTE Business School, Nova School of Business and Economics and Universidade do Minho participated and delivered great reports and presentations.

We congratulate all teams for their commitment.

As in the last edition, the big winner University was ISEG!

Congratulations to the team and to the professor Victor Barros, CFA!

This initiative wouldn´t have been possible without the support of our amazing volunteers and staff.

Special thanks to the judges António Seladas, CFA, Filipe Rosa, Jorge Guimaraes, CFA; the graders Gonçalo Araújo, CFA, Pedro Baldaia, CFA, Maksym Mishyn, CFA, António Seladas, CFA and the mentors Filipe Leite, CFA, Marco Afonso, CFA, Nuno Estácio, Nuno Matias, Pedro Guerra,CFA and Rina Guerra, CFA.

Also, the CFA Society Portugal would like to thank Isabel Ucha, Rita Albuquerque and Maria João Vaz for making this event possible on the Euronext Lisboa facilities!

ISEG

8th Edition (2022)

This Eight Edition of Research Challenge competition was very challenging for the teams! There were very good reports and presentations. CFA Society Portugal would like to congratulate all the teams, and their graders and announce the big winner. This year, presenting for EDP Renováveis, the Winner University was ISEG.

We would like to thank to André Fernandes, representing EDP Renováveis, and also:

António Seladas, CFA, Filipe Rosa, Jorge Guimarães, CFA – Jury
Gonçalo Garcia, CFA, Pedro Baldaia, CFA, Maksym Mishyn, CFA – Graders
Diana Oliveira, CFA, Filipe Leite, CFA, João Urbano Gonçalves, Nuno Estácio, Nuno Matias, Pedro Guerra, CFA and Rina Guerra, CFA – Mentors

8th edition Research Challenge