International Negotiation Competition for students
The Negotiation Challenge 2026
What is TNC?
The Negotiation Challenge is one of the oldest and the most prestigeous international negotiation competitions. TNC has hosted world’s best student negotiators from leading universities, allowing them to share their passion and negotiate with each other based on realistic simulations.
The Negotiation Challenge is open to all students independently of their major. Most participating teams are enrolled in graduate programs at business and law schools but we also kindly invite students of other majors to register for the competition.
We explicitly encourage all passionate student negotiators to form teams of three and register for The Negotiation Challenge. All registered teams will participate in the online qualification rounds.
Due to its global reach, open, impartial and highly competitive character combined with rigorous scientific approach, The Negotiation Challenge is an unofficial World Championship in Negotiation.
Competition Schedule
The competition will start with three online negotiation rounds including all teams registered for the competition. The best 10 teams from the online rounds will advance to the final event.
The final rounds of The Negotiation Challenge 2026 will take place in Paris. During the final event, the teams will negotiate face-to-face two or three additional rounds. However, in the case of travel restrictions, we are prepared to conduct a hybrid event.
The structure of The Negotiation Challenge is also reflected in its schedule. The online rounds are scheduled to take place on three consecutive Fridays/Saturdays in February and March. Following the online rounds, the best teams will have a few weeks to prepare for the finals. The final negotiation rounds usually take place on the first weekend after Easter.
During the online negotiation rounds, the participants will have nearly three days from the moment they receive the instructions to:
- contact each other
- agree on the exact timing of their negotiations
- agree on the communication mode
- negotiate a wise agreement
- report their final outcome
The exact schedule for the final rounds will be announced shortly before the event.
Registration deadline is February 14, 2026, but you can join our mailing list anytime and receive timely updates concerning our competition. As the number of participating teams is limited, we encourage you to reserve your spot in the competition as soon as possible.
How to prepare?
