The Odysseus project aims to engage and inspire the European youth in the “New Frontier”, by coordinating and implementing a pan-European Scientific Contest for young people on Space exploration themes, combining creativity, intelligence and innovation.The project aspires to integrate ongoing educational activities on space in a pan-European perspective, providing the opportunity for young students to co-compete with their peers from different European countries. This action is enhancing the concept of multinational cooperation, an element necessary in space exploration field. All participants are allowed to enter the contest individually and have to be between 14 to 18 years old. The participants will have to create a collaborative team for design and demonstrate an innovative project. Each team will nominate a leader. The number of team members is limited to twenty.The Odysseus Contest will focus on three major theme categories:Solar SystemSpaceship – global cooperationCo-evolution of lifeThe participants, young students, are expected to design, develop and implement projects and activities in the above themes. These projects will have to be innovative in approach, seeking answers to scientific issues and formulate their final viewpoint.The Contest will be organized in two phases, concluding to a central European Exhibition and an Award Ceremony for the nine finalists, three for each theme. The student teams will be represented by their team leader.The first phase of the contest will activate a selection procedure in order to create a pool of 27 finalist teams in each theme, each finalist team representing a country from the 27 European countries.During the second phase, the best three projects out of the twenty-seven, on each theme, will be rewarded and nominated for their achievements. In the Odysseus project a Conference and an Exhibition of competing projects will take place.