GUA News: 2026 - 2028 Strategy Launch
Accelerating Global Expansion with New Strategy Launch
May 20, 2026
by Diane Nolan
Launching Our 2026 – 2028 Strategy
The Global Undergraduate Awards, the world’s leading academic awards programme for undergraduate research, has launched its 2026–2028 strategy, setting out an ambitious roadmap to expand its global reach, strengthen its flagship events and deepen engagement with its growing alumni network.
The Global Undergraduate Awards (GUA), the world’s leading academic awards programme for undergraduate research, has launched its 2026–2028 strategy, setting out an ambitious roadmap to expand its global reach, strengthen its flagship events, and deepen engagement with its growing alumni network.
Three key priorities:
- Expanding the existing global awards programme
- enhancing the annual GUA Summit
- developing a connected international alumni community
Together, these initiatives aim to further strengthen GUA’s impact in recognising exceptional undergraduates and their undergraduate research that contributes to global progress.
In 2025, the awards programme continues to grow with first-class equivalent submissions from students across 348 universities in over 100 countries, spanning 25 disciplinary categories. Supported by a global panel of 500 academics, yearly, assessing entries, reflecting the programme’s international reach and academic credibility.
The 25 Thomas Clarkson Gold Medal winners, regional winners and the Highly Commended (top 10%) invited to attend the exclusive GUA Global Summit in Dublin in November.
The launch of the new strategy marks an important step in expanding our international reach and strengthening how we connect with our growing global community. A key focus of this strategy is building a more connected alumni network through initiatives such as GUA Together and our new international chapter network, beginning with Singapore. These developments reflect our commitment to fostering long-term engagement beyond the Award processs itself, while continuing to recognise and support outstanding undergraduate research from around the world.
In line with its new strategy, GUA will introduce a series of locally led international alumni chapters to foster in-person connection, interdisciplinary collaboration and long-term community engagement. As part of this rollout, it is launching its first international alumni chapter in Singapore, alongside GUA Together, a new global alumni and collaboration platform connecting award participants and alumni across disciplines, sectors and regions.
Singapore was selected for the launch in recognition of its strong and longstanding engagement with the programme. Since 2013, it has accounted for over 10% of all Global Undergraduate Awards winners, from a pool of more than 39,000 applicants, making it one of the organisation’s most consistent global talent hubs.
