🌍 Global Design Award for Students 🛠️ Win up to €36,000 with the James Dyson Award 💡 (Win up to €36,000)

If you are a budding inventor with an idea that solves a real problem, this is your chance to make a name for yourself on a global stage. The James Dyson Award is an international design competition for current students and recent graduates in engineering and design, offering significant cash prizes, career-launching media exposure, and the esteem of being recognised by James Dyson himself.

About the Award

The James Dyson Award is an international design award that celebrates, encourages, and inspires the next generation of design engineers. It is open to current and recent design engineering students and is run by the James Dyson Foundation, James Dyson's charitable trust, as part of its mission to get young people excited about design engineering.

James Dyson is on the hunt for bright minds with fresh ideas from around the globe. If you have an invention that solves a problem, the Award wants to hear about it. As well as a significant cash prize, winning could generate media exposure to kick-start your career, earn the esteem of your peers, and perhaps give you the confidence to launch your own business.

Who Can Apply

🎓 Eligible participants must have graduated within the last 4 years in engineering, product design, or industrial design, and must be from one of the eligible countries

👥 Teams can participate, as long as the team leader has studied one of the qualifying subjects and all team members have been enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate programme within the last 4 years

The Brief

The brief is broad: design something that solves a problem. The Award is looking for designers who think differently, to create products that work better.

🛠️ Engineers follow an iterative design process, and the judges, especially James Dyson, are drawn to designs that employ clever yet simple engineering principles and address clear problems

💶 As well as proving your project's technical viability, the judges would love to see that it is commercially viable too, so include any research you have done into manufacturing costs and retail prices

♻️ James Dyson will also look for entries that address a sustainability issue, or that have been designed, sourced, or manufactured sustainably

Prizes

🏆 International Winner: €36,000 for the winning individual or team, plus €5,700 for the institution where the winner studies or previously studied

♻️ Sustainability Winner: €36,000 for the winning individual or team

🥈 International Runners-up: €6,000 to the entrant or team

🌍 National Winners from each eligible country: €6,000 to the entrant or team

In addition, all the winners will receive a James Dyson Award Certificate. (Prize amounts are also expressed in pounds sterling in the official materials, with the international and sustainability winners receiving £30,000 and national winners and runners-up £5,000.)

Key Dates 2026

📂 11 March: entries open

⏰ 15 July: entries close

🏅 9 September: national winners and finalists announced

🔍 14 October: Dyson engineers' shortlist announced

🎉 4 November: international winner and sustainability winner announced

How to Apply

Applicants must register and provide proof of their student or recent graduate status in a qualifying subject. Entries should be submitted in English, although additional submissions in other languages are optional.

🖼️ You can upload up to five images, each up to 3MB, including one feature image

🎥 You can include a video under 3 minutes long that showcases the design's development process and prototype in action, uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo prior to submission

📜 Be sure to check the full rules of the competition before entering