WGSF 2025 Challenge applications are now open!

Women and Girls in STEM Forum 2025

Aiming for Cybersecurity Awareness

October 2025 | Brussels, Belgium
The Women and Girls in STEM Forum is the annual flagship event of the Girls Go Circular initiative, led by the EIT Community, in cooperation with the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and the European Commission (DG-EAC).

This year’s theme is Cybersecurity – and we’re spotlighting bold ideas, practical tools, and fresh thinking on ethics, privacy, and sustainability. It’s all about smart, impactful solutions and the women and girls leading the way.

As part of this year’s Forum, students across Europe are invited to team up and tackle real-world cybersecurity challenges. The most creative and impactful ideas will earn a spot on stage at the Women & Girls in STEM Forum 2025 – live in Brussels.

What is the Challenge?

 

Grab your teammates and get creative! You’re invited to come up with a cool idea for a tool that helps people stay safe online – think phishing, password security, online privacy, or anything that matters to you.

You’ll design your tool and pitch your concept to show how it works and why it matters.

How it works

  1. Be a participant or alumna of the Girls Go Circular project
  2. Form a team of 4 girls aged 14-19 (with a teacher to guide you)
  3. Pick a cybersecurity topic you care about
  4. Use our Design Thinking toolkit to shape your idea
  5. Record a 30-second video pitch
  6. Submit your slides and video by 30 June 2025
  7. The selected finalist team in each country will attend the Women & Girls in STEM Forum 2025 in Brussels this October – each group will be accompanied by a school teacher representative.

Why join?

 

  • Design a solution for a real-world challenge
  • Get your idea seen across Europe
  • Get the chance to meet students from 30+ countries
  • Join a powerful community of young innovators

Criteria

To develop your Design Thinking slide deck and create a quality pitch video, make sure you consider the following points:

Understanding the problem

When designing a tool to raise cybersecurity awareness, the first step is to identify a specific problem or gap in knowledge that you want to address. This could be improving password management, educating users on phishing scams, or helping people understand the risks of public Wi-Fi.

Defining goals

Be clear about the problem you aim to solve and define measurable goals for your solution. Once you find what issue you want to address, start brainstorming how a cybersecurity tool could help solving this issue. 

Collecting data

You will need to gather data to understand common user behaviour, the types of cyber threats people face, and the existing gaps in knowledge. This data could come from surveys, reports, expert opinions, or case studies.

Technical execution

When developing a cybersecurity awareness tool, you need to research the right technologies and platforms to create your solution.

The deployment of your tool involves integrating your tool into platforms where your target audience can easily access and use it. Use the considerations in the Design Thinking slide deck to reflect on the main characteristics of your cybersecurity awareness tool.

Visual identity

Now it’s time to design your cybersecurity awareness solution! Give it a name and a slogan, and design its logo and a mockup of its user interface. You can implement your ideas directly on the Design Thinking slide deck or create your own slides using the free templates available on Canva.

Recording your video

Time to pitch your idea! Record a video of maximum 30 seconds in English to present the issue you chose to address, and explain how your cybersecurity awareness tool will help solve it. You do not have to repeat all the characteristics that you developed in your slide deck. Your pitch video aims to be creative and persuasive – have fun with it!

Award criteria and prize

Students are encouraged to think outside the box and develop a creative idea and pitch. The best teams will be selected based on the creativity and relevance of their cybersecurity idea, the quality of their research and thought process, and the persuasive power of their pitch.

Their submission will be reviewed and scored by an expert jury according to the following criteria:

Creativity and uniqueness

There are infinite ways to present and interpret the challenge, let us hear your voice! Think of a cybersecurity tool that is yours and unique. 

Quality of reasoning

Although you will not have to build your cybersecurity tool in real life, you should think as if you were planning to. Think about the questions in the Design Thinking slide deck and use your answers to narrow down the purpose of your cybersecurity tool and its main characteristics. Don’t forget to consider the legal, ethical and environmental implications of your cybersecurity tool as well.

Quality of design

Create a unique branding for your cybersecurity tool (name, logo, slogan, user interface).

Quality of verbal and non-verbal communication

Invest time in thinking and preparing your pitch video, including storytelling, dialogues, shots, and scenery.

Clear and compelling expression of message

Use your pitch video to clearly express your motivation and inspiration in coming up with this cybersecurity tool.

Ready to jump in?

Applications are now open, so get your team ready! We need one team member to complete the form below and submit the right document. This consists of:

  • Slide presentation with your idea
  • 30-second video introducing your video and presenting
  • Consent form – this document should be signed by all team members’ parents or guardians and submitted as one PDF file. This means all pages need to be in one single file before submitting it.