About

The Conrad Challenge unfolds across three phases. The Activation Stage is free — teams register, assemble a coach, and commit to a category. Teams that advance pay a $499 fee for the Innovation Stage, which requires an Innovation Brief, a video pitch, and a team website. The top teams from the Innovation Stage are named finalists and invited to the Innovation Summit at Space Center Houston, where they pitch live to judges from organizations including Google, Equinor, and Blue Origin; attendees pay an additional $499 per person, with financial aid available. Over 4,000 students from 50+ countries participated in the most recent completed cycle. The competition explicitly distinguishes itself from science fairs — the emphasis is on commercial viability and entrepreneurial process, not laboratory research.

Winners earn the title of Pete Conrad Scholar alongside scholarships, patent lawyer services, and entrepreneurial program access — prizes oriented toward supporting the team's next steps rather than delivering cash. The competition's distinctive value is its NASA-adjacent setting, its industry judge network, and its year-long structure that mirrors an actual startup development process more closely than any comparable high school competition.

The Conrad Challenge is the right competition for a team with a genuine technology-based solution to a global problem and the discipline to execute an eight-month development process — from concept through live pitch — under competitive conditions.