The James Dyson Award
Dezeen Competitions: The James Dyson Award encourages young designers to solve a problem and create a solution to a real-world issue.
The competition intends to encourage and inspire the next generation of design engineers.
This competition is now closed
Organiser: The James Dyson Foundation
Competition: The James Dyson Award
Judges: yet to be announced
Submission deadline: 15 July
Winner announcement: 9 September
Prizes: at a national level, students can win £5,000 (or the equivalent in their local currency). At an international level, students can win £30,000
Competition overview
The James Dyson Award is an international design award that celebrates, encourages and inspires the next generation of design engineers.
It’s open to current and recent design engineering students.
Over the past 20 years, the award has granted £1.7 million in prize money, supported more than 400 student inventions, and seen 70 per cent of past winners go on to commercialise their projects.
Eligibility and judging criteria
Current students and graduates from the past four years who are studying or have studied an engineering or design-related degree.
Those who are not studying a design/engineering-related degree may enter if they are on a team with someone who is.
Groups of up to 10 can apply, but each member must be studying or have graduated in the past four years. To verify this, we request official documentation in the application process.
Judging focuses not only on the invention itself but on the overall strength of the entry, including how clearly entrants communicate the significance of their idea, the development process, and the journey to the final design, with an iterative, trial-and-error approach viewed positively.
In stage 2, held in September, a panel of Dyson engineers reviews the nationally selected entries and narrows them down to just 20, assessing how well each responds to the brief while prioritising commercial viability and sustainability, specifically whether the product is desirable and can be manufactured at a reasonable cost.
In stage 3, in October, the final 20 entries are examined in detail by James Dyson, after which his preferred entries are scrutinised by Dyson’s intellectual property team for any potential legal infringements, such as conflicts with third-party patents.
Using this information, James Dyson hand-selects the global winners, and regardless of the outcome, all entrants’ intellectual property is respected, with Dyson making no claim to steal or profit from submitted ideas.
Good entries clearly meet the brief by addressing a well-defined social, global, or sustainability-related problem with a compelling engineering and/or design solution that demonstrates clever use of engineering principles and has the potential to make a positive impact on the world.
They show a well-thought-through and clearly explained understanding of how the solution works, supported by evidence of a robust design process, including iterative development through sketches, designs, prototyping, and testing, or clear explanations where access to prototyping has been limited.
Strong entries include good supporting images and optional video, address both real and potential failures, and show consideration for sustainability in design, sourcing, or manufacture.
They offer clear differentiation from existing products, demonstrate real-world applicability with the potential to be commercially viable, and are presented in a clear, concise, and well-evidenced manner, with high-quality imagery and well-written responses throughout the entry.
How to enter
The competition runs across three stages from July to October.
In stage one, which takes place from July to September, a panel of local design and engineering professionals selects three entries from each country or region to progress, with one named the national winner and awarded a cash prize.
Readers can register for the award on the James Dyson Award website.
Once they have done this, registrants will need to verify their account via email to apply when the competition opens on 11 March. Before entering, entrants should read the competition terms and conditions.
On your application, we will ask the following:
- what your invention does
- where you got your inspiration
- how it works
- how you developed your design
- what sets it apart
- what the future holds for it
This information is what we’ll present, word for word, in our project gallery. It’s also what judges will see when discussing the entries.
We encourage students to include pictures and a video in their submission. Take a look at our gallery of past winners for examples of successful entries.
At a national level, students can win £5,000 (or the equivalent in their local currency). At an international level, students can win £30,000.
While the prize money can be used however the winners choose, it is intended to help them continue developing their projects after university.
Even participants who do not win prize money benefit from the chance to present their inventions on a global stage. Many runners-up have later achieved success thanks to the media exposure generated by the competition.
Submission deadlines
Entries open on 11 March and close on 15 July.
National winners and runners-up are announced on 9 September.
The top 20 shortlist is announced on 14 October, and the global winners are announced on 4 November.
About The James Dyson Foundation
The James Dyson Foundation’s mission is to inspire the next generation of engineers. This is driven by a global shortage of engineers and a lack of understanding of engineering among young people.
We address this through a range of initiatives, including providing schools with free educational resources and delivering workshops at primary, secondary and university levels.
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