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CFA Institute Research Challenge Benelux

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 employersCFA 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:  

How is the Challenge organized?

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. 

For the 2025-2026 competition year, we are very much looking forward to a live - and no doubt lively - competition! The competition will start in fall 2025.

We had 20 teams participating in 2024/2025!:

  • Erasmus School of Economics
  • Rotterdam School of Management (2 teams)
  • Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences (2 teams)
  • Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam - School of Business and Economics
  • University of Groningen,  Faculty of Economics and Business 
  • Utrecht University, School of Economics
  • Radboud University
  • University of Amsterdam - Faculty of Economics and Business
  • University of Leuven (KU Leuven) (2 teams)
  • ICHEC Brussels Management School
  • HEC Liège
  • University of Luxembourg (2 teams)
  • Luxembourg School of Business (2 teams)
  • Al Akhawayn University (2 teams)

Learn more about the CFA Institute Research Challenge.

Volunteers Wanted!

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.

Schedule for Research Challenge 2025-2026

Research Challenge Benelux:

  • Mid October 2025 (TBA); kick-off where students and mentors from interested universities are invited and the company to be researched is announced.
  • Two weeks after kick off; Deadline for participating universities to register their teams
  • Mid November 2025 (TBA); Company day; This event offers students the one opportunity to ask questions to the representative of the company investigated. They will receive tips and tricks and listen to a presentation on ESG, and the student teams will participate in an investment game.
  • Mid January 2026 (TBA): deadline for submitting research reports
  • Early February 2026 (TBA): announcement of 3 local finalists on the basis of the reports
  • End February 2026 (TBA): Benelux Finals at Euronext, where the finalists will present their reports in front of a jury that will then put them to the test.

Sub-Regional dates:

  • Early March 2026: Local Champions Receive Sub-Regional Instructions/kick-off
  • Mid March 2026: Teams Submit Sub-Regional Presentations recordings
  • Early April 2026: Sub-Regional Announcements (The winning teams from each sub-regional competition advance to the regional competition)

Regional and Global Final Dates

  • April 2026: EMEA Semifinals
  • April 2026: EMEA Final (format will be confirmed at a later date)
  • May 2026: Global Final 

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.

Vrije Universiteit (Team VU) wins CFA Institute Research Challenge 2024-2025 Benelux finals!

This year’s Research Challenge was among our most successful competitions in history in terms of its reach. We started with 20 teams participating

This year's Research Challenge Benelux was one of our most successful competitions in history in terms of number of participants. We started with 20 teams. Only 4 teams:Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, HEC Liège, KU Leuven and Radboud University, were invited to the finals, where they competed with their presentations in front of the jury in beautiful Euronext. 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 JustEatTakeaway.com. The students were also given valuable access to LSEG's (London Stock Exchange Group) Netherlands' Refinitiv for Students platform this year. The quality of the reports was particularly good this year and the presentations were also of a very high standard. Nevertheless, there could only be one winner. Team VU was complimented by the jury for its convincing and well-researched and organised case!

See here for the picture gallery.

Reports from previous winners

  • Report 2025 (JustEatTakeAway.com) - Winner Team Vrije Universiteit (VU)
  • Report 2024 (Aalberts N.V.) - Winnaar Utrecht School of Economics (University of Utrecht)
  • Report 2023 (PostNL - Winner HEC Liège
  • Report 2022 (Arcadis) - winner HEC Liège
  • Report 2021 (Alfen) - winner Maastricht University
  • Report 2020 (Barco) - winner HEC-ULiège
  • Report 2019 (Basic Fit) - winner HEC-ULiège
  • Report 2018 (Greenyard) - winner ICHEC Brussels 
  • Report 2017 (Nedap) - winner Erasmus University
  • Report 2016 (Biocartis) - winner Erasmus University
  • Report 2015 (Docdata) - winner HEC-ULiège
  • Report 2014 (Melexis) - winner Erasmus University
  • Report 2013 (Sligro) - winner Erasmus University
  • 2012 winner - Tilburg University
  • 2011 winner -  Solvay Business School
  • 2010 winner - Tilburg University
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