It is not a network of logos. It is a system of roles.
An ecosystem does not exist simply because many organisations appear on the same page.
It exists when relationships between them enable something none could produce in quite the same way alone.
In Mars Challenge, the roles differ.
Young people create.
Educators facilitate.
Institutions create space.
Territories connect actors.
Organisations connect communities.
Companies can bring real-world knowledge and context.
Researchers turn experience into questions and evidence.
Missions organise participation routes.
Projects preserve what has been created.
The Grand Jam creates convergence.
The ecosystem begins when these elements stop appearing next to one another and start working in relationship.
One programme. Three related components.
Mars Challenge brings together the international programme, methodology and community.
Mars Jam is institutional and territorial activation, with shared identity and a leading role for the host institution.
The Grand Jam is the international convergence event.
The Real-Life Readiness Passport was conceived as a personal, cumulative and verifiable record of demonstrated evidence.
The Lab + Observatory form the lower layer of experience, process records, evidence and contextual validation.
The Observatory does not automatically publish personal evidence. The Passport does not depend exclusively on an event. Engagement with all components or a fixed order is not required.
Young people are not the audience. They are at the centre of the action.
Mars Challenge is not designed for young people to watch experts solve problems.
They have to enter the problem themselves.
Investigate.
Ask questions.
Negotiate.
Decide.
Create.
Present.
Revise.
Retain ownership of what they propose.
Other parts of the ecosystem exist to create better conditions for that process, not to take it over.
Young people are not merely the beneficiaries of the ecosystem. They are among its authors.
Institutions create the conditions.
Universities, schools and other educational institutions do more than “send teams”.
They can use Mars Challenge as a space where students, educators, research, innovation, international relations, talent and different disciplines meet.
An institution can activate participation, mobilise educators, create teams, connect departments and document what is learned.
It does not necessarily need another subject. It needs a space where different subjects have to meet reality together.
Educators and mentors make autonomy possible.
Autonomy does not mean leaving a team alone.
It means supporting it without taking ownership of the problem.
A mentor can ask questions, create space for reflection, request evidence, help organise a process, encourage iteration and facilitate collaboration.
They should not decide for the team or become the author of its project.
The better the facilitation, the less the mentor needs to appear in the solution.
Territories and organisations connect talent to context.
A city, government, foundation or organisation knows things a global programme cannot know in the same way from a distance.
Communities.
Priorities.
Institutions.
Local challenges.
Resources.
Opportunities.
Cities and governments can connect actors.
Foundations and organisations can reach particular communities.
Educational networks can connect institutions.
Specialised organisations can make a mission more relevant or accessible.
A common architecture becomes more meaningful when it encounters different contexts.
Formal responsibilities always depend on the applicable participation model and rules.
Companies enter when the real world enters.
A relationship with companies does not have to begin and end with sponsorship or visibility.
Companies can bring real problems, specialist knowledge, experience, technology, market context and connections to talent.
That can increase the real-world complexity a team encounters.
Mars Challenge should not, however, automatically promise incubation, employment, investment or implementation.
The relationship becomes valuable when it improves the quality of the question, not merely the visibility of a brand.
What happens should be able to become knowledge.
An educational ecosystem loses value when every edition disappears as soon as it ends.
Projects, questions, methods, learning, reports, available data and new research questions can create memory.
Researchers and education leaders can help distinguish:
what was observed;
what was measured;
what can be claimed;
what remains a hypothesis.
Experience produces raw material. Research helps turn it into knowledge with stronger standards.
The Lab + Observatory help describe the experience and record processes with context. The Evidence Layer supports relationships between observable facts and claims; contextual validation determines what can be supported. Observation is not automatically turned into personal publication.
The Lab features described by the Passport document do not establish operational services on this website.
Global in architecture. Local in activation.
Mars Challenge needs both scales.
International architecture provides shared principles, language, relationships, accumulated memory and the possibility of convergence.
Local activation provides context, proximity, relevance and territorial knowledge.
The goal is to avoid both extremes:
a global programme too rigid to understand context;
or disconnected local activities that no longer form one system.
**Scale comes from what is shared.
Relevance comes from meeting context.**
Mars Jam names institutional and territorial activation. Mars Jam × [host organisation] makes the host visible under official conditions. It does not itself grant a licence, sponsorship or authorisation.
The Grand Jam is where the system converges.
Mars Challenge is the system.
The Grand Jam is one of the places where parts of that system come together.
Teams encounter other perspectives.
Institutions encounter other institutions.
Projects become public.
Education, science, territories, companies and communities can share a common space.
**Mars Challenge creates the journey.
The Grand Jam creates the convergence.**
Dates, venue, programme, access and event operations belong to the official The Grand Jam property.
An edition ends. The system should not return to zero.
Projects.
Institutions.
Countries.
Missions.
Resources.
Reports.
Verified stories.
Evidence.
What can be documented responsibly can help one edition learn from another.
Memory turns activity into infrastructure.
The Real-Life Readiness Passport proposes preserving contextualised Evidence Records across experiences, separating achievements, Team Evidence and Individual Evidence. It does not reduce a trajectory to a score or guarantee an available issuance service.
In 2027, four missions create different entry points.
The 2027 architecture is planned around four missions:
Pioneers — designed for school contexts and younger participants.
Originals — connected to university contexts and multidisciplinary collaboration.
Ancestral Futures — opening space for ancestral, traditional, local and lived knowledge.
Mars Challenge × NO HUMAN B™ — focused on human variability and neuroinclusive participation.
They are not four disconnected programmes.
They are four routes into the same edition from different communities and forms of knowledge.
Eligibility and operational rules belong to each mission.
The question is not only “can I participate?” It is “what is my role?”
You might enter as a young person.
A university.
A school.
An educator.
A foundation.
An organisation.
A city.
A government.
A company.
A researcher.
Each position enters for a different reason.
Each contributes something different.
Each carries different responsibilities.
The ecosystem works when those differences connect without disappearing.
Explore the components
Discover Mars Jam activation, The Grand Jam convergence and the Real-Life Readiness Passport evidence model. The programme, missions and ten existing journeys remain entry points.
Find your place
Universities, governments and cities, schools, companies, countries and Mission Partners, young people, educators and mentors, foundations, families and researchers have their own journeys. Explore, change your profile or go directly to an action. A and B are different entrances to the same journeys.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Mars Challenge ecosystem?
It is the structured network of people, institutions, missions, projects, territories, knowledge and related events that connect around the Mars Challenge programme.
Who is part of it?
Depending on the edition and participation model, it can include young people, universities, schools, educators and mentors, foundations and organisations, cities and governments, companies and partners, researchers and other programme actors.
Is it only for universities?
No. The planned ecosystem supports several institutional and organisational profiles. Specific eligibility depends on the mission and edition.
Are Mars Challenge and the Mars Challenge ecosystem the same thing?
Mars Challenge is the programme. “Ecosystem” describes the relationships and actors through which that programme is activated, experienced and accumulated.
What is the relationship between Mars Challenge and The Grand Jam?
Mars Challenge is the programme/system. The Grand Jam is a related international convergence event.
Does every logo shown mean “official partner”?
No. Relationships should be described according to verified status rather than inferred from logo presence.
Can companies participate?
Yes, through applicable collaboration models. A company relationship does not automatically imply project ownership, employment, investment or implementation.
What can governments and cities do?
They can help connect institutions, talent and territorial priorities. Formal responsibilities depend on the applicable model and edition.
What is Virtual Educa's role?
The 2026 Official Rules describe Virtual Educa as an international strategic ally supporting pedagogy and international articulation. The 2027 website should use the institutional formulation formally approved for the 2027 programme.
Who owns the projects?
Authorship and ownership follow the rules and terms of the applicable edition. Institutional participation does not automatically transfer authorship of participants’ work.
Does everyone go to The Grand Jam?
No. Access depends on the relevant route, edition and mission rules.
Is the ecosystem only international?
No. One of its characteristics is connecting local and territorial activation with an international architecture.
What happens to projects after an edition?
Where rights, consent and documentation allow, projects can become part of the programme's searchable memory and evidence infrastructure.
Are Mars Jam and The Grand Jam the same?
No. Mars Jam is institutional and territorial activation; The Grand Jam is the international convergence event.
Does the Passport depend on one event?
No. It was conceived as a personal cumulative record of contextualised evidence from different experiences.