Idea of the Year is a competition that recognizes, encourages, and rewards the entrepreneurial spirit, innovation, and courage of high school students to make a difference in the world.

The final round of Idea of the Year was held on April 24 at Effectus University College, where the top ten teams from across Croatia presented their projects to a panel of expert judges. Impressively, eight of the ten teams developed fully functional prototypes. With strong presentation skills and high levels of innovation, these young entrepreneurs showed their readiness to bring their ideas to market and transform them into real business ventures.

Vito Kosovec and Ivan Tisanić, students from I. Gymnasium and XIII. Gymnasium Zagreb, won first place at the 13th edition of Idea of the Year—a business competition for high school students that celebrates creativity, innovation, courage, and entrepreneurship.

Their project, SOV-A, is an innovative early fire detection system that deploys sensor-equipped modules via drones into forest areas. The system uses CO₂, temperature, and GPS sensors to detect fires and transmit data quickly, even in challenging terrains. This groundbreaking idea earned them the grand prize—a study trip across Europe—and an invitation to visit the European Parliament.

Second place went to a team from the Osijek School of Economics and Management for ELVIS, an app designed to digitally track visitors in schools. Third place was awarded to students from Split for Kripto Krafne, an educational platform promoting cybersecurity awareness among youth.

Member of the European Parliament, Sunčana Glavak, presented the awards and invited all finalists to visit the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

The competition was organized by the portal srednja.hr, with support from numerous partners—including Effectus University College, Infobip, KONČAR, Span, ZICER, PBZ, and others.

Idea of the Year continues to demonstrate that Croatia is home to young people ready to change the world.

Effectus University College congratulates all participants on their outstanding ideas and for pushing boundaries.
Keep believing in yourselves—your creativity is building the future we all want to see.