Calpe Town Council, through the Observatory of Resilient and Sustainable Cities and in collaboration with Global Omnium and Aguas de Calpee, has launched the third edition of the # goCalpe competition, an initiative aimed at 6th grade primary and 4th grade secondary school students in the municipality's educational centres to turn them into ‘sustainability urban planners’ committed to the fight against the climate emergency.
The contest challenges students to design viable and accessible solutions to one of the six climate risks identified for Calpe: drought, heat islands, flooding, population stagnation and demographic challenges, degradation of the natural environment and loss of biodiversity. Based on these risks, the teams must analyse how they manifest themselves in the municipality and propose specific actions in the urban space or natural environment that contribute to reducing their impact and increasing the resilience of the town.
The competition will run from December 2025 to March 2026 and will consist of four phases. In the first phase, until 19 December 2025, teaching staff will register their teams and select the climate risk they will work on. Next, the Year 6 primary school groups will prepare a proposal in digital poster format that includes the risk analysis, a description of the solution and its environmental, social and economic benefits. Meanwhile, Year 8 secondary school students will have to submit a more detailed research project, with a local diagnosis, objectives, timetable, resource estimate and final infographic. The deadline for submitting the projects is 13 February 2026.
In the third phase, a jury of experts from the Observatory of Resilient and Sustainable Cities will select, by 27 February 2026, at least one finalist proposal for each primary school and one finalist project for each class of the participating secondary schools. The selected teams will have the opportunity to engage in a technical dialogue with these specialists, who will advise them on possible improvements before the public defence of their projects, scheduled for 3 March 2026. The winners will be announced on 4 March.
The awards ceremony will be held on 9 March 2026, at which the best proposal from Year 6 Primary will be recognised with a prize worth €2,000 and the best project from Year 4 Secondary with a prize of €3,000. In both cases, the prize money will be used to purchase technological equipment for the winning schools. In addition, the winning classes will participate in the sponsorship and release of a sea turtle on a beach in Calpe, an activity organised by the Oceanogràfic Foundation of Valencia, thus reinforcing the link between environmental education and marine conservation.
Participation in the competition is free and voluntary and is carried out in teams of at least four students coordinated by a teacher. The full rules, as well as the registration forms and detailed information on the phases, evaluation criteria and contacts, are available on the website www.go2globalomnium.com and via email at sostenibilidad@globalomnium.com.
With this third edition of #goCalpe, the Town Council is reinforcing its commitment to education in sustainability, adaptation to climate change and the involvement of the educational community in building a more resilient, inclusive and environmentally friendly Calpe.