The CFA Institute Research Challenge is an equity research competition among student teams from the world's top university business and finance programs. It offers the best real-life experience for groups of young talents to produce a complete research report on a company and compete with other (international) teams! Ethics, education and professional excellence are core to the competition and it provides participants with the opportunity to showcase technical and soft skills and meet employers. CFA Society Netherlands introduced the Challenge to the Netherlands as a means to promote best practices in research among the next generation of analysts through hands-on mentoring and intensive training in company analysis and presentation skills.
In 2010 the Challenge was expanded to include Belgium and in 2013 Luxembourg was added to create the CFA Institute Research Challenge in the Benelux.
To get a better picture of what to expect, read the following:
Upon invitation from CFA Society Netherlands, local universities assemble teams of 3 to 5 persons each. Under guidance of a mentor, students write an equity research report on a publicly traded company, and present their findings to a distinguished panel of experts.
The teams are judged on their written reports and the accompanying presentations and a winner is selected. The winning team receives a €1500 check and will advance to the (sub-)Regional, Western Europe Finals and possibly even the global Research Challenge Finals. The second team receives €1000 and the third team €500 in prize money.
Throughout the competition, CFA Society Netherlands' investment professionals volunteer as mentors, graders and judges and teach students best practices in equity research and corporate analysis.
The 2025-2026 competition year, we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the CFA Institute Research Challenge. We are very much looking forward to a live - and no doubt lively - competition! The competition will start in fall 2025.
Research Challenge Benelux:
Sub-Regional dates:
Regional and Global Final Dates
The local events up to the Benelux Finals are organised and hosted by CFA Society Netherlands. The sub-regional, regional, and global competitions are hosted by CFA Institute.
Learn more about the CFA Institute Research Challenge.
The CFA Institute Research Challenge owes its success to the invaluable input of volunteers who serve as committee members, mentors and report graders. Find out how you can contribute your time and skills to benefit the Research Challenge and help university students find their way in the investment industry. Download the role descriptions via CFA Institute Research Challenge or contact Alex Morozov for more information.
Every year we try to challenge students when it comes to business complexity, and this year we succeeded again with the interesting case study of Universal Music Group. This year’s Research Challenge was among our most successful competitions in history in terms of its reach. We started with 24 teams participating, guided by their faculty advisors and industry mentors. At the company day, one of the true highlights of the Research Challenge Benelux, 118 students from leading universities across the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Morocco had the opportunity to engage directly with the VP of Investor Relations at Universal Music Group. The day also featured insightful sessions from industry experts. These sessions – as well as the access to the Refinitive for Students platsform provided by our sponsor LSEG – provided students with valuable, real-world perspectives to support the development of their research reports.The reports quality was very good this year, and 4 finalists - Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, University of Luxembourg University of Luxembourg, Erasmus University and Tilburg University - received average marks among the highest in the history of competition! Given the number of entries, we continued with our expanded 4-team local finals, and, given large competitor field, for the first time ever we opted to send two finalists to the next level! At the finals, the teams competed with their presentations in front of the jury in beautiful Euronext. The quality of the reports was particularly good this year and the presentations were also of a very high standard. We send in 2 winners to the Sub-regional Finals; University of Groningen and Rotterdam School of Management (RSM)! Rotterdam School of Management also proceeded to the regional EMEA competition! Well done!!
See here for the picture gallery.
The CFA Institute Research Challenge Benelux is sponsored by:
LSEG Netherlands b.v.
