SINGAPORE - Aspiring young inventors looking for funding and support to develop their product further can now apply for the 2023 James Dyson Award, which is given out yearly by the famous British engineer and inventor.

Since 2005, the engineering competition with a sustainability focus has challenged entrepreneurial students to tackle global problems, from environmental issues to improving healthcare practices.

Past winners have developed solutions to advance plastic recycling, the biodegradability of materials and at-home medical diagnostics.

To date, the competition has awarded 390 inventions with prize money, and over 70 per cent of past global winners are commercialising their winning inventions.

Mr Dyson said the award is looking for young engineers who are hard-wired to solve problems sustainably, often using less energy and fewer materials, and who want to improve the world through their ideas.

“Young people have the ideas that can change things for the better, and they should be encouraged. The James Dyson Award gives them the platform to pursue their inventions, and I look forward to judging this year’s entries,” he added.

Each participating country and region will award a national winner, who will win $8,000, and two national runners-up.

Some of the national winners will proceed to the international shortlist, where Mr Dyson will select a sustainability winner and an international winner. Both will be awarded $48,000 each.

Previous winners have credited the awareness brought by the award as one of the most valuable contributions to getting their ideas off the ground.

Among the previous Singapore entries for the award that won acclaim was an invention by three National University of Singapore students. The invention, aptly named Hopes (Home Eye Pressure E-skin Sensor), is a glove that uses sensor technology and artificial intelligence to enable patients to check their eye pressure at home.

The glaucoma screening device beat more than 2,000 entries from around the world to win the international James Dyson Award in 2021.

Another notable invention came from Mr John Tay, who was the 2022 Singapore national winner. Prompted by the struggles that his father faced due to the lack of proper at-home rehabilitation tools for stroke sufferers, he created a set of four tools focused on upper-limb rehabilitation, allowing patients to perform exercises correctly and safely.

Today, Rehabit is in use at multiple therapy centres, and Mr Tay is now working on expanding the range of products.

Registration can be done at https://www.jamesdysonaward.org and applications close on July 19.