THE JAMES Dyson Award is now open for 2026 entries, inviting the next generation of Filipino innovators to submit inventions tackling real-world challenges. The global design engineering competition is open to all eligible university students and recent graduates.
Shortlisted entries will be reviewed by national judging panels of design and engineering experts, including Dyson engineers. National winners will receive ₱398,280 and a chance to progress to the international stage. Sir James Dyson will select global winners to receive ₱2,390,230 and a platform to take their inventions to the next level.
The Award gives winners media exposure, international recognition, and the momentum for these young inventors to accelerate their ideas to commercialization.
Sir James Dyson, founder of Dyson, said: “I established the James Dyson Award to encourage young ‘doers’ in life who are focused on solving the problems they see in the world, not grandstanding about them. It has been inspiring to see so many brilliant ideas from young design engineers, many of whom have gone on to build businesses and take their problem-solving ideas to people and markets all over the world. I look forward to judging this year’s submissions.”
In 2025, the James Dyson Award marked its 20th year and received more than 2,100 inventions from young engineers worldwide, spanning solutions from health screening and household waste to disaster relief.
Past Filipino winners
Over the years, the Award has recognized Filipino national winners who have developed solutions that create meaningful change in the lives of many Filipinos in communities and classrooms.
In 2023, Make-Roscope addressed a common barrier in Filipino classrooms: the lack of accessible science equipment for hands-on learning. Invented by Jeremy De Leon, the device turns a smartphone or tablet into a powerful microscope, giving students a simple, intuitive way to explore the microscopic world.
Since winning, Jeremy has grown the project into his own brand, JereMAKE, with Make-Roscope reaching thousands of users and distributing over 12,000 units. The brand has also built partnerships with more than 70 schools and universities, impacting students across the country, and is expanding globally beyond the Philippines.
“The James Dyson Award opened opportunities that helped Make-Roscope move beyond a prototype and be used in real classrooms by students in the Philippines and beyond,” Jeremy said.
SolAsin, the Philippines’ 2025 National Winner, was developed by John Carlo Reyes, a graduate of the University of the Philippines Diliman, to address the unpredictable and labor-intensive process of producing salt. The salt farming unit uses sun-driven evaporation in a compact, controlled setup to help small‑scale salt farmers produce higher‑quality, more consistent flaky salt, improving efficiency and livelihoods in coastal areas.
“I saw the James Dyson Award as a great platform to showcase my work. Maybe it could inspire others to design with and for communities. That possibility alone made it all worthwhile for me,” John Carlo said.
How to enter
Entries can now be submitted via the James Dyson Award website, with the deadline set for midnight on 15th July 2026. University students and recent graduates of design and engineering subjects are eligible to apply.
The best entries tackle a clear global problem, demonstrate a thoughtful design process, and showcase originality and technical feasibility.
