Major U.S. real estate organizations have launched an investment equivalent to moot court, enrolling competing student teams to manage a theoretical $1-billion real estate portfolio. The first annual Real Confidence University Portfolio Challenge will track the performance of each team’s selections in the private and public equity and debt markets for a one-year period until July 2016.

Hypothetical returns will be calculated with real benchmark data from the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT), the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF), Markit and the Gilberto-Levy Commercial Mortgage Performance Index. As sponsors of the challenge, Altus Group Limited, NAREIT and NCREIF will jointly fund a $50,000 scholarship for the winning student team.

“This is an educational tool,” affirms Robert Ruggles III, president of Altus Group’s research, valuation and advisory division. “We know students are the future of the industry, and it is important to empower them to understand how to holistically construct a portfolio containing various real estate investment options.”

Beyond the 15 teams from universities across the U.S., students and other interested observers can follow the participants’ portfolio results and accompanying expert industry commentary on an interactive website.

“We believe it will help encourage the study of real estate and its role in investment portfolios, and we look forward to feedback from the students who participate in this first competition of its kind,” says NAREIT’s president and CEO, Steven Wechsler.