Big prizes for big thinkers

What you'll win: A framed certificate, a fully funded place to LIYSF, including the full 15-day residential programme. All meals and accommodation provided. 

The winner chosen will represent the UK at the 66th London International Youth Science Forum (LIYSF), 23 July to 6 August 2025.

LIYSF is a two-week residential event held at Imperial College London, with lectures and demonstrations from leading scientists, visits to industrial sites, research centres, scientific institutions and organisations, including world class laboratories and universities.

LIYSF attracts 500 of the world's leading young scientists aged 16 to 21 years old from more than 70 participating countries. There is an active social calendar with events designed to enable those from around the world to learn about different cultures. 

Meet LIYSF:

Criteria

Topic: ​​​All topics are welcome across science, engineering, and technology. During LIYSF students can tailor their programme from a wide range of STEM topics and visits on offer.  

Age: Senior (16 to 18)

Size: Individual

Find out more about LIYSF.

What you'll win: a trophy and £500

This award recognises the importance of teamwork and collaboration as the ECITB celebrates projects where young people work together to innovate and create solutions.

​​Engineering a better future means different people, with different skills and different backgrounds need to work together like never before to find solutions to the greatest challenges of our lifetimes. 

​Engineering construction is the industry that looks after the things that keep us warm, keep us fed and keep us moving. It designs, builds, and looks after the machines and technology responsible for producing fuel, chemicals, water and food, and power. If we really want to achieve net zero, we need to find better ways to use resources and generate energy.

​​Can you imagine a world where there was no heat to warm our homes, no clean water to drink and no petrol to fill our cars.  ​Sounds scary, doesn’t it?  That’s what could happen if we don’t find new ways to generate power and process our natural resources. 

​​Teamwork and collaboration are at the very core of everything engineers do.  The construction industry sectors are the cornerstone of infrastructure across the globe.  Without the skills, perspectives and ideas of different people working together towards a common goal, we fail before we even get started.​ 

Criteria

Topic:

• Accessibility and inclusivity
• Sustainability
• Infrastructure 
• ​Energy production 
• ​Power generation 
• Alternative energy sources 
• ​Net zero 

Ages: All ages

Size: Teams

What you'll win: a trophy, £500 and opportunities to undertake one of the EI’s training courses for energy professionals, an article in the in-house magazine New Energy World, and to contribute social media content. ​ 

​​The Energy Institute (EI) is the chartered professional membership body for people who work across the world of energy.  It's purpose is creating a better energy future for it's members and society by accelerating a just global energy transition to net zero​.

​​This award will recognise projects designed to help bring about a lasting reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, as a contribution to the UK’s goal of reaching net zero by 2050.  This may be either a new technological idea or an innovative way of encouraging people to change their behaviour or lifestyle.​ 

​​The challenge facing us all is to develop new technologies and change behaviours, in our homes, buildings, transport and in industry, that will help us reach the UK’s target of net zero by 2050. There is a global climate emergency, and the real-world impacts – melting ice sheets, rising sea levels and extreme weather patterns - are more evident by the day. 

Responding to the climate emergency is at the heart of the Energy Institute’s purpose, as the UK transitions towards a net zero future.  

Criteria

Topics: Climate

Ages: all ages

Size: individuals and teams

Need some inspiration? Discover ​​​Generation 2050. 

What you'll win: a trophy and £500. Plus, attend IHEEM Annual Conference 2025 to showcase your project and feature in IHEEM journal and website.

The Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management is an international Professional Engineering Institute providing guidance and development opportunities for engineers and estate managers in the healthcare sector, and it's passionate about inspiring the next generation of healthcare professionals.

Criteria

Topic:

• Accessibility and inclusivity
• Healthcare & medication
• Humanitarian
• Environment
• Food
• Wellbeing

Size: Individual and teams

Age: All ages

What you'll win: a trophy and £500

​​The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) is the official UK government body responsible for intellectual property (IP) rights including patents, designs, trademarks and copyright. Intellectual property is something that you create using your mind - for example, an invention, an artistic work or a symbol. 

​The IPO aims to support and inspire innovators and creators so they, and society, get the most out of their ideas at home and internationally. By promoting a deep understanding of intellectual property, we aim to nurture a generation capable of navigating the IP landscape, ensuring innovators embark on future careers armed with the tools to protect and propel their groundbreaking ideas. ​ 

​​The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) Innovation Award recognises young innovators who are shaping a brighter future through their creative ideas and inventions. We're looking for projects that demonstrate: 

• Understanding of Intellectual Property (IP): Show how you've considered protecting your invention using IP rights (e.g., patent, trade mark, design registration, or copyright). 

• Innovation impact: Explain how your invention or improvement addresses a real-world problem and benefits society. 

• Sustainable thinking: Describe how your innovation considers environmental impact in its materials or processes. 

• ​Future focused: Demonstrate how your invention contributes to a better future for individuals or communities. ​

​​At the IPO, we believe it’s important to support those who research, create, collaborate, and invent. We want the UK to be the best place in the world for inventors, creators, and innovators to build on their ideas and find success; the IP system and IP education is fundamental in achieving these ambitions.​ 

Criteria:

Theme: all topics welcome

Age: all ages

Size: individual and team projects

Need some inspiration? Find out more on Cracking Ideas website.

What you'll win: a trophy and £500

We want Competitors to use their STEM skills to create transport for the future! As the global population grows, so too does the need to travel for education, work, or leisure. We want to ensure we can provide transport links to a growing number of commuters whilst also protecting our environment and supporting our communities. Some key areas you could consider are: 

• How can we power our transport and infrastructure (e.g., train stations) without creating any greenhouse gas emissions?  

• How can we make commuting more accessible so everyone can enjoy their journey?  

• How can we protect local wildlife when creating new transport links?  

• Can you create a new method of transport, or improve what already exists?  

• How can we balance a growing number of commuters and the need to build sustainably?   

​​​Our vision is a railway fit for the future. We want to make a positive and lasting contribution to our neighbours and the communities we serve by ensuring that stations remain a comfortable and safe place, even as the numbers of people passing through them, with the potential impact this may have on our environment.  Our vision is a railway network which is energy efficient, makes best use of natural and sustainable resources and where reduction, reuse or recycling of waste is a priority. We want to be an organisation that provides the best possible service to our passengers.

​​Every day, most people will need to travel, whether it be for education, work, or leisure. You can consider ideas to help improve transport connections within your local community or across the world! ​

We need to work with young people to teach them about what we do in rail, why we do it, and how they can fit in. We hope that this competition will help us to bring the sector to life and help stimulate young people’s creativity and inquisitiveness. We are looking for the next generation of innovators and engineers to join us and help us to deliver a safe, reliable and green service for our passengers.

Criteria

Topics:

• Accessibility and inclusivit
• AI (including smart technology)
• Digital technology
• Energy
• Environment
• Future cities and societies
• Sustainability
• Transportation

Ages: all ages

Size: individual and team projects

Need some inspiration?

• Educational resources for children - Network Rail​ 
• ​​Putting passengers first - Network Rail​