James Dyson Award 2025: Student Design & Engineering Competition Open
12 March 2025, Kathmandu
The James Dyson Award, an international student design and engineering competition, opens for submissions today to its 2025 programme in 28 countries and regions.
James Dyson Award 2025
From everyday challenges to the world’s most pressing issues, the Award calls for current or recent students to submit problem-solving ideas that could make a real difference to people’s lives.
Since it was established in 2005, the James Dyson Award has supported more than 400 student inventions with £1m in prize money and a global platform. Those who progress to the final stages and are selected by James Dyson as the global winners will claim a prize of £30,000 and a chance to gain international media exposure, providing a springboard to commercialise their inventions.
Previous winners include mOm incubators, a low-cost, inflatable incubator to provide flexibility to caring for newborns in less developed areas. Invented by James Roberts, Product Design & Technology graduate from Loughborough University in the UK, mOm has gone on to support over 10,000 patients and continues to expand its operations worldwide, including in conflict areas such as Ukraine.
Similarly, Hong Kong winners have been advancing their innovations and bringing impactful solutions to the market.
The 2023 Hong Kong National Winner and Global Sustainability Award Winner, E-COATING, is redefining sustainable cooling with its eco-friendly paint made from recycled waste glass. Since winning the award, the team has made significant progress toward commercialization, conducting large-scale production tests, and is now preparing to officially launch their first-generation product this year, laying a solid foundation for future upgrades and market expansion of their sustainable solution.
“Winning the Sustainability Award and receiving Sir James Dyson’s recognition is a great honour,” said Chan Hoi Fung Ronaldo and Xiao Can. “This award has opened doors to valuable opportunities and industry collaborations, allowing us to refine our technology and expand its impact. We are excited to continue advancing sustainable solutions for a greener future.”
Another notable past winner is the 2022 Hong Kong National Winner, O-Oley. The team has been dedicated to revolutionizing eye care through its smart goggles, which help improve eye health and wellness. After winning the James Dyson Award, with the valuable industry exposure and recognition, the team has enhanced user-friendliness and developed another new product to measure the therapeutic effects of eye treatment.
“Participating in the James Dyson Award has been a transformative experience for our team,” said Kin Nam Kwok, Minji Seo, Yuen Yin Leung, and Kwun Chung Chan. “The recognition gave us the confidence to pursue our ideas and the motivation to keep improving. It taught us the importance of listening to feedback and embracing collaboration, which has been invaluable for both our personal and professional growth.”
Sir James Dyson, Founder of Dyson, said: “I started the James Dyson Award 20 years ago with the mission to inspire and support the next generation of design engineers. The brilliant ideas we’ve seen since then prove that young people are passionate about providing solutions to the world’s most pressing problems using design, engineering, and technology – in medicine, the environment, and much more. I look forward to discovering what inventions will be put forward this year – good luck!”
The deadline to apply is midnight on 16th July 2025. Shortlisted entries in each participating country or region will then be evaluated by national judging panels with expertise across design and engineering, based on functionality, design process, differentiation, and commercial viability.
The National Winners, selected by these judging panels and each winning a £5,000 prize, will be announced on 10th September, the Global Top 20 Shortlist, selected by Dyson Engineers, on 15th October, and the Global Winners, selected by James Dyson, on 5th November.
James Dyson Award
The James Dyson Award forms part of a wider commitment by Sir James Dyson to demonstrate the power of engineers to solve the world’s problems. The competition has supported more than 400 inventions with prize money and a chance to gain global media exposure and is run by the James Dyson Foundation. Founded in 2002, the Foundation is an international education charity whose mission is to inspire the next generation of engineers. The Foundation also invests in medical research and has donated more than £145m to charitable causes to date.
ABOUT THE COMPETITION
The brief. Design something that solves a problem. This problem may be a frustration that we all face in daily life or a global issue. The important thing is that the solution is effective and demonstrates considered design thinking. Unlike other competitions, participants are given full autonomy over their intellectual property.
The process. Entries are judged first at the national level by a panel of external judges and a Dyson engineer. Each operating market awards a national winner and two national runners-up. From these winners, a panel of Dyson engineers then select an international shortlist of 20 entries. The top 20 projects are then reviewed by Sir James Dyson, who selects his global winners.
The 2025 prizes
Global winners, chosen by Sir James Dyson, each receive a prize of £30,000.
Each national winner receives £5,000.
Previous global winners
2024 Medical Winner – Athena: A portable and affordable hair-loss prevention device for chemotherapy patients.
2024 Sustainability Winner – airXeed Radiosonde: A reusable, nature-inspired sensor to improve weather forecasting and tackle e-waste.
2023 International Winner – The Golden Capsule: A hands-free IV device for disaster zones.
2023 Sustainability Winner – E-COATING: A sustainable exterior wall coating with a high cooling effect, reducing environmental costs of air conditioning.
2023 Humanitarian Winner – The Life Chariot: An off-road trailer ambulance for universal towing.
2022 International Winner – SMARTHEAL: A smart sensor for dressings that indicates how well a wound is healing by measuring its pH level.
2022 Sustainability Winner – Polyformer: A machine that recycles plastic bottles into affordable 3D printer filament for developing nations.
For more: James Dyson Award 2025
