Glossary
What are the IOOVC prizes?
The IOOVC prizes follow a ladder of registration tiers: the more paid projects in a competition by October 31, 2026, the higher the tier and the bigger each prize. At the top tier, first place in the Open takes $50,000, with mentions from 4th to 500th place; the University pays, in every tier, exactly half.
Two competitions, two podiums
Open and University are separate competitions, each with its own purse, its own podium and its own registration count. The tier each competition is in on October 31, 2026 applies to its whole podium.
The ladder has 15 tiers, from 1–99 to 10,000+ registrations. In the Open, the first tier pays $500, $250 and $100 to first, second and third place; the last pays $50,000, $25,000 and $10,000. The University pays exactly half, tier by tier.
The honourable mentions
From the 1,000–1,999 tier onward there are mentions besides the podium: $100 per person in the Open and $50 in the University, from 4th place to the tier's last paid placement.
At the top of the ladder, with 10,000+ registrations, the mentions run through 500th place: each competition pays up to 500 people.
When and how you get paid
The winners and their full scores are announced on December 25, 2026, on the IOOVC page. After that, the organization contacts each winner by email and phone to pay the prize.
Besides the money, the winners and their projects stay featured in the past-editions gallery on ioovc.org for 2 years. The official amounts are the ladder's, settled when registration closes; any projected figure shown before that is always labeled as a simulation.
When this matters
You want to know how much the prize is worth before paying the fee, and why the site says "up to".
You finished off the podium and want to know whether you can still be paid (the mentions).
You are unsure when the money is paid and how the organization gets in touch.
Our position
The prize grows with the number of registrations, and it is all published, tier by tier. That is why the IOOVC says "up to $50,000" and not "$50,000": the right amount depends on how many people enter, and any projection shown before registration closes is always labeled as a simulation.