The CFA Institute Research Challenge is an annual competition in which student teams from Swiss universities prepare an investment case on a listed Swiss company, consisting of a detailed equity research report and a presentation. A different company is selected each year.

Throughout the challenge, teams are supported by industry mentors and present their findings to a panel of senior investment professionals. It offers students first-hand experience in equity research and the chance to work closely with investment professionals and CFA charterholders. The Swiss winner advances to the EMEA regional finals and may qualify for the Global Final. Winning teams also receive a cash prize and a certificate from the CFA Institute.

The Swiss competition is organised by CFA Society Switzerland – a member society of CFA Institute, the largest global association of investment professionals – to promote best practices in equity research and company analysis.

Helpful links:

CFA Institute Research Challenge 

Student Preparation

At the University of Basel

The Challenge has been part of the curriculum since 2016 and, since 2020, is offered as a Master's-level colloquium (58972 CFA Research Challenge), also open to Bachelor's students (recommended from the 3rd semester onwards). It runs over two semesters, starting in the fall term (HS) and ending in the following spring term (FS); credit points are awarded in the spring term.

An internal kick-off event takes place in September of the fall term, where we introduce the essentials of the Challenge and form the teams. The rest of the schedule follows the official timeline of the challenge.

Interested students and teams are welcome to contact Prof. Dr. Pascal Gantenbein (pascal.gantenbein@clutterunibas.ch) and Dr. Christoph Winter (christoph.winter@clutterunibas.ch). 
 

General Timeline Overview

The official dates, times, and events are released in September of every year. The table below shall be used as a brief reference only: 

*Please be aware that only one team from the University of Basel can attend the Swiss semi-finals competition.

Given that the University of Basel team advances to the next round(s), the following timeline also needs to be taken into consideration: