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Set Up a Programme the Way You Run It

Choose what you run and every screen speaks its language. Start from your handbook, a complete template or a blank page, build a form applicants finish, and see the step where they give up.

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Start from your handbook, a template or a blank page, build a form applicants finish, and see where they give up.

programme types, each with its own words
18
whole-programme templates
9
emails in every template, off until you say
5
to undo a spreadsheet import
7days

How Programme Set-Up Works

Create a Programme

Every setting up front, in one window

The whole programme in one window: name, type, words, features, dates and look. Every part starts sensibly set, and nothing is created until you say.

  • Only the name is required; everything else starts set
  • Features as cards, suggested first, each with a ? helper
  • A feature that is off is hidden, never deleted
The Create a Programme window with the Features section open: cards for Interviews, Pitch day, Committee, Cohorts, Mentors and Portfolio, each with a picture, a one-line description, an On switch and a question-mark helper.
Every setting is up front. Features appear as designed cards with the suggested ones first, and a question mark on each explains it.
Event types

A hackathon has judges; a grant has reviewers

Each programme type sets the words people see, such as teams and judges or nominees and jurors, and switch on the features that suit. Rename any word yourself.

  • Programmes, competitions, technical contests, awards and something else
  • Six words you can rename, with plurals handled for you
  • The type can change until the programme goes live
The new programme window, where the kind of event sets its words and switches on features such as Pitch day, Interviews and Mentors.
Name the programme and say what kind of event it is; the right features switch on.
IdeaScore AI

Start from your handbook, not a blank page

Share your handbook, website or a sentence, and IdeaScore AI drafts the form, rubric, rounds, letters and emails. Keep or skip each part before anything is created.

  • Reads a PDF, Word or PowerPoint handbook, or one public page
  • One question at a time, with the suggested answer marked
  • Later, Improve rewrites a form, rubric, letter or round with a live preview
IdeaScore AI set-up asking What kind of programme is it? with Start-up programme suggested, then Hackathon, Grant or fellowship, Open innovation challenge, Business plan or case competition and Awards, and a link to show 9 more types.
IdeaScore AI set-up offers every programme type, six first with the suggestion marked, and the rest one click away.
Templates

A complete programme, ready to adjust

Nine whole-programme templates, each with a form, rubric, three dated rounds, letters and five emails. Preview every part before you choose.

  • Filter by event type, or by funding, competitions, challenges and accelerators
  • Template emails arrive switched off until you turn them on
  • Add just a rubric, round, letter set or form from a template later
Start from a Template, with the Seed fund template open to show its form questions.
Start a programme from a complete template and see its form, rubric and rounds first.
Registration form

A form applicants can actually finish

Stages, conditions and a live preview while you edit. Form check suggests fixes, and What are we missing? finds rubric criteria no question asks about.

  • Conditions, validation rules and resources on any question
  • Version history with what changed, compare and restore
  • What are we missing? only ever adds a question, with Undo
The Meridian Seed Fund 2026 application form, with its six steps and the first questions.
Applicants apply through a clear, step-by-step form.
Form analytics

See the step where applicants give up

Opened, started, submitted, and the step where most people leave, with the question they stopped at and a link to fix it. No outside trackers.

  • Tracked links show which newsletter, post or QR code works
  • Drop-off by question, time per stage, devices and sources
  • Compared with your past programmes at the same point
The Application Funnel card: 1,326 opened the form, 447 started and 190 submitted, with most people leaving at step 3.
Opened, started and submitted, and the step where most people leave.
Programme Settings

Settings that read like sentences

Your programme read back in sentences. Click an underlined value to change it, then check every change in plain words before one Save.

  • Search settings with / or Ctrl F
  • When you save lists each change, grouped, with Undo
  • Closing with unsaved edits asks first
Programme Settings for Meridian Seed Fund 2026, the earlier long form beside the new window with a side rail, search and settings that read as sentences.
From a long form to a welcoming window: a side rail, search, and each setting as a sentence.
Time zones

Each programme on its own clock

Every date in a programme follows its own time zone, written in plain words such as India time (IST), with your own time beside it.

  • Search the list by city or region
  • Starts at your organisation's zone
  • Evaluators choose whether to share their own
India time (IST) opens a small editor in place, and the Time Zone section is one click away on the side rail.
Hackathons and contests

Teams, checkpoints, tracks and prizes

Teams form inside IdeaScore, with a team finder that never shows email addresses. Checkpoints collect repositories, videos and decks by a date.

  • Team sizes, solo entries, and formation and lock dates
  • A late period of up to 7 days, with late work marked
  • Problem statements hidden until you reveal them
HackDeccan's Team Formation page: 51 teams, 157 people on teams, and the team policy settings.
Team sizes, when teams form and lock, and a finder for people without a team.
Create a Programme

Every setting up front, in one window

The whole programme in one window: name, type, words, features, dates and look. Every part starts sensibly set, and nothing is created until you say.

  • Only the name is required; everything else starts set
  • Features as cards, suggested first, each with a ? helper
The Create a Programme window with the Features section open: cards for Interviews, Pitch day, Committee, Cohorts, Mentors and Portfolio, each with a picture, a one-line description, an On switch and a question-mark helper.
Every setting is up front. Features appear as designed cards with the suggested ones first, and a question mark on each explains it.
Event types

A hackathon has judges; a grant has reviewers

Each programme type sets the words people see, such as teams and judges or nominees and jurors, and switch on the features that suit. Rename any word yourself.

  • Programmes, competitions, technical contests, awards and something else
  • Six words you can rename, with plurals handled for you
The new programme window, where the kind of event sets its words and switches on features such as Pitch day, Interviews and Mentors.
Name the programme and say what kind of event it is; the right features switch on.
IdeaScore AI

Start from your handbook, not a blank page

Share your handbook, website or a sentence, and IdeaScore AI drafts the form, rubric, rounds, letters and emails. Keep or skip each part before anything is created.

  • Reads a PDF, Word or PowerPoint handbook, or one public page
  • One question at a time, with the suggested answer marked
IdeaScore AI set-up asking What kind of programme is it? with Start-up programme suggested, then Hackathon, Grant or fellowship, Open innovation challenge, Business plan or case competition and Awards, and a link to show 9 more types.
IdeaScore AI set-up offers every programme type, six first with the suggestion marked, and the rest one click away.

More on programme set-up

6 more

Everything in Applications

  • Programme emails

    A receipt, two deadline reminders, through to the next round and results, each sent once as its step comes up.

  • Import from a spreadsheet

    Last year's applications or a teams sheet, CSV or Excel, in five steps with a dry run and Undo for 7 days.

  • What are we missing?

    Finds rubric criteria no question feeds and suggests one question for each. Reads your form and rubrics, never an application.

  • Version history

    Who saved each version and what changed, compared with the live form and restored in one step.

  • Flow map and preview

    Every path an applicant can take, conditions included, and the form exactly as they will see it.

  • Form check

    Fixes, improvements and tips for the form, each one click.

  • Tracked links

    Up to 50 links per programme by source, medium and campaign, each with its views and applications.

  • Personal answers cleared

    Mark the questions that identify someone, and their answers are cleared when an applicant's data is deleted.

  • Resume link

    An applicant who loses the way back to a draft asks for a fresh link with their email.

  • Team finder

    Profiles with skills and what people are looking for, reached by invitation or join request, never by email.

  • Agenda

    The programme's timetable in every team's portal, and as an .ics file for any calendar.

  • Event page

    Tracks, prizes, problem statements and community links on one shareable page.

  • Clone a programme

    Copy an existing programme as the start of the next one.

  • Single parts from a template

    Add a rubric, rounds, letters and emails, or a form, to a programme you already run.

Questions Programme Teams Ask

Yes, until the programme goes live: when it is no longer a draft, or when the first application arrives. Words can be changed at any time, and changing them never rewrites your form, rubric, rounds or entries.
No. Set-up reads only what you share with it: a handbook, one public web page or your own words. Improve reads the saved form, rubric, letter or email, and What are we missing? reads your form and rubrics. None of them reads an application.
Each save keeps the earlier form as a version, with who saved it and a summary of what changed. Restoring keeps the current form as a version first, and submissions already received keep the answers they were given.
No. IdeaScore counts visits itself, with no third-party trackers and no visitor cookie, and IP addresses are never stored. Ad blockers stop some counts, so read the figures as a floor.
Only once you turn them on. Template emails arrive switched off. When you switch on Send these emails automatically, each applicant gets each email once as its step comes up, and nothing is sent for steps that already happened.
Import a CSV or Excel file of up to 2,000 rows in five steps: match the columns, check the rows, see a dry run, then import. No emails are sent, and Undo import takes it back for 7 days.

See IdeaScore Run a Call with Your Own Rubric

A 30-minute walkthrough with a product specialist, using your programme's form and criteria.

Book a demoStart a 7-day trial
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