Dyson announces the opening of nominations for the James Dyson Award 2026

nominations are now open again for the James Dyson Award 2026, the international design and engineering competition sponsored by the James Dyson Foundation that calls on university students and recent graduates in design, engineering and related disciplines from 28 countries and regions around the world to design innovative solutions that respond to real problems so that academic insights can be transformed into inventions with real impact.

International 2020 JDA winner Judit Giro Benet with her Blue Box invention

From health prevention to household waste management and emergency disaster response, the competition - celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2025 - attracted more than 2,100 entries. Among them, the Global Sustainability Award went to WaterSense, a device designed by Filip Budny, a Polish researcher and nanotechnology PhD student at Warsaw University of Technology, designed to improve water quality monitoring through the use of artificial intelligence. While, the global award in the medical field went to OnCue, a keyboard developed by Italian Alessandra Galli, a product designer and graduate of the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, which provides support to Parkinson's patients by using tactile and visual signals to manage motor symptoms and reduce typing errors: "The Award offers concrete support to young people to help projects move forward," said Galli.

JDA_2025 OnCue_NL_Alessandra Galli

Sir James Dyson, founder of Dyson, said of the initiative: "I set up the James Dyson Award to encourage young 'doers' - people who focus on solving the problems they see in the world, rather than just talking about them. It has been inspiring to see so many brilliant ideas from young design engineers, many of whom have gone on to found companies and bring their solutions to people and markets around the world. I look forward to evaluating this year's applications.

JDA_Korea_The Golden Capsule_2023

Original projects that propose viable solutions to a well-defined global problem and demonstrate a structured design can apply for the new competition by midnight on 15 July 2026. National juries of experts, including Dyson engineers, will evaluate the entries and the national winners will receive a prize of £5,000 as well as the opportunity to enter the international stage where Sir James Dyson will select the global winners who will receive £30,000 and access to a platform to take their inventions to the next level of development. In addition, to the international recognition, the award offers media exposure and a real impetus to get the best inventions to market.