Change our City Challenge 2026

Change our City Challenge 2026 takes over The Great Hall, Strand Building on Saturday 24 October, from 11:30 to 20:00. It's run by the King's Entrepreneurship Institute and King's Edge, and it's open to King's students, who are asked to form diverse teams and spend the day working on some of London's biggest problems.

Teams pick one of five themes — Community, Hunger, Homelessness, Environment or Health — and use AI tools and industry experts to build an innovative solution. The themes are built around some stark city figures: loneliness, with 700,000 Londoners feeling lonely 'most' or 'all of the time'; food insecurity, affecting nearly a quarter of a million London children; homelessness, with 13,231 people sleeping rough in London as of June 2025, a 10% increase on the previous year; environmental issues like food waste, air pollution and flooding; and the healthcare needs of an ageing population. Each team focuses on one of those, so the day looks different depending on which one you choose.

The day runs from arrival and registration at 11:30, through expert-led workshops and mentoring, to a pitch before a panel of experts and the announcement of winners. It's a full day's work, from the first registration in the morning to the final results in the evening. The Great Hall is at the Strand Building, Strand Campus, London, WC2R 2LS, and the whole thing runs from 11:30 to 20:00.