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Meet Bright Future Prize's 2026 finalists

We're ready to reveal the 2026 Bright Future Prize shortlist! Hosted by ACT, this annual competition searches for world for young entrepreneurs on a mission to make a difference, investing in their community projects ideas.

After receiving applications from right across the globe, ACT's board of trustees have selected this year's eight finalists, representing Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore and the UK – and who are all in with a chance of securing a share of £40,000 to turn their bright idea into a reality.

Congratulations to our shortlist

Robotic innovations to protect water quality

Aditya Banerjee
Leiria, Portugal

Having lived in both Brazil and now Portugal, Aditya wants to use his experience to make a difference caring for the climate – with the dream of specialising in environmental robotics. His project, Rowbot, is a semi-autonomous robotic buoy which provides real-time data of various aspects of water quality, including temperature, pH and pollution levels. Currently there are very few water quality stations, which are often not connected to one another and expensive to maintain. Through Rowbot, Aditya wants to shift to a network approach, with more stations that share data in an Open Access model.

Already, Aditya has prototyped his design and is now ready to create a full-scale, working model, alongside creating a platform to host the Global Water Dashboard which will host data collected. Ultimately, he wants to make information on water quality visible and comparable across the world to enable large scale decisions making and action to protect waterways.

Environmental degradation is slow and silent, remaining invisible until the consequences are irreversible. Local communities are often the last to know when their lifelines are poisoned. I have observed this recurring tragedy while growing up between Portugal and Brazil, countries with vastly different environmental regulations. Through Rowbot, I hope to address this gap between information and data visibility which allows the damage to our ecosystems to go unnoticed. I am thrilled to be selected as a finalist for the Bright Future Prize 2026. It gives me a platform to showcase this technology which can make the health of our rivers visible to local communities and eventually help build a more standardized global Water Quality Index.
Aditya Banerjee, 2026 finalist

Furthering career options through access to work placements

Murphy Kasumu
Northfleet, UK

Performance at school and continuing into higher education can feel like the only route to get that first job outside of education. However, for many an alternative route is the best option – which is where work placements can be incredibly important to help get a flavour of various career choices and to develop experience.

In this light Murphy has created a student-led digital platform, Gradify, to help young people access work placements, insight days and career opportunities. He developed the initial app in just a month – after being hit by inspiration in his own school where he saw that academic excellence alone wasn’t the only way to develop career skills – and just four months after that had almost 1,000 users. Now he wants to further build the app and expand to more schools in Kent.

Gradify is more than just a platform it’s a reminder that there’s always a path for you, no matter what happens. Your grades don’t define your future, and you can always find a way to excel. I’m passionate about helping students discover opportunities whether that’s work experience, apprenticeships, or new pathways they might have thought were out of reach. I’m incredibly grateful to be in a position where I can help so many students already, and doing this at just 16 makes it even more meaningful. Being a finalist shows that this message is resonating and motivates me to keep going.
Murphy Kasumu, 2026 finalist

Supporting migrant youth to reach their potential

Jin Lee
Perth, Australia

Jin’s project, Equistart, is born from her belief that displacement should never determine the potential of a young person. Refugee and migrant youth are much more likely to experience challenge in school and reduced confidence, which can impact their long-term future.

Harnessing her family’s own experience fleeing Burma, Jin has navigated creating a new life in Australia, with all its challenges along the way. Equistart seeks to support this journey to establish new roots by combining resources with a structured community mentorship programme.

Through two key pillars, Equistart is aimed at wellbeing and education of those aged 10 to 18 to set them off on a brighter pathway. The first pillar includes a guided wellbeing toolkit to further emotional stability following a period of uncertainty, whilst the second focusses on access to education, and includes the mentoring. Already, Jin has piloted her idea in Western Australia, reaching 800 young people, and now wants to expand.

EquiStart exists to give refugee-background young people the structure and support they’re often expected to find on their own. It focuses on building direction, confidence, and access to real opportunities. Being a finalist is a strong reminder that this gap is real and worth addressing.
Jin Lee

Showcasing Māori and Ni Vanuatu Pasifika communities through music

Rosalie Norton
Hamilton, New Zealand

A lyricist, musician and creator, Rosalie uses song to capture the spirit of two cultures close to her own roots – Ni Vanuatu Pasifika and Māori (New Zealand and Vanuatu indigenous peoples respectively). She seeks to inspire young people in the community to preserve and be proud of their heritage, and through her music shares themes of identity, culture and belonging.

Under her artist’s name, Lehali, Rosalie is creating a collection of music to empower ideas of mana wāhine (power, authority, dignity, and prestige of Māori women) to uplift and help people feel seen. The music is a form of collective activism, with each song conveying a different story related to New Zealand or the Pacific.

Each song in my project speaks to the ideas of identity, social justice, culture and belonging. I am so passionate about this project because I there is such power in music and art, and I know the impact their messages can have for other young people around the world to stand up and make their voices heard. I am so honoured to be a finalist for this award and am grateful for the opportunity to highlight authentic creativity and culture in this space!
Rosalie Norton

Empowering offline education in remote communities

João Marcos Almeida dos Santos
Arapiraca, Brazil

Education is increasingly digital, but this can cause issues in regions where access to the internet and electricity is not always possible. Having grown up in a region where this was the case, João has experienced the challenges of getting online to learn – and which has inspired his project, Pré Parei (“Prepared”).

Pré Parei is a hybrid, 100% offline educational program which João has been developing over the past two years – with the aim to now expand to rural and low-connectivity schools in his home state of Alagoas. Using a portable solar kit to generate a local Wi-Fi hotspot, the project combines with an education app focussed on literacy, tutoring, and logic at each student’s individual pace and learning style – ultimately with the goal of eradicating school dropout and enabling students to study even without constant electricity.

My passion for education was born at home, watching my parents' hard work; although they didn't have the chance to study in their youth, they always taught me that knowledge was the only path capable of transforming reality. Throughout my academic journey, I realised that the education system often doesn't embrace everyone, especially those who learn differently or live in areas without basic access to the internet and electricity. I had to create my own methods to overcome challenges, and it was this experience that motivated me to create a solution that isn't just another digital platform, but a smart, hybrid system that actually works where others fail. Being selected as a finalist is one of those moments where the heart beats faster, bringing the conviction that I am not walking alone on this journey. It is a feeling of deep gratitude to see that the long workdays and dedication to making education accessible are being recognised by a global organisation that values our creativity and our desire for change. Being among the finalists brings me immense pride, as this recognition proves that innovation when born from real-life experience has the strength to tear down the barriers that hinder learning.
João Marcos Almeida dos Santos

Enabling young diverse communities to have their voices heard

Mackenzie Li
Melbourne, Australia

Mackenzie aspires to improve systems to better support young people’s health and wellbeing, particularly those from culturally diverse background and the LGBTQIA+ community. She’s seen how difficult it can be to understand and access support, which is where The Aletheia Project steps in.

Named after the Greek goddess of truth and sincerity, The Aletheia Project aims to address the gap between access and provision of support. At its heart, the project is a youth-led health literacy and inclusion initiative which improves young people’s confidence to navigate health and mental health systems. The project is formed of three core components, including “Voice packs” – guided resources that are specific to diverse groups; monthly workshops to provide structured opportunities to connect; and quarterly health roundtables to advocate policy chance and facilitate dialogue. Mackenzie hopes to use the prize money to lead a 12-month pilot in her home city of Melbourne.

Being from a refugee background means growing up acutely aware of how easily voices can be overlooked, shamed or minimised – particularly for those navigating language, culture, and systems that weren’t built for them. That experience led me to create The Aletheia Project. It is driven by a commitment to equity, inclusion, and amplifying unheard voices, ensuring young people—regardless of their background, ethnicity, culture, gender or sexuality—feel confident, respected and supported in advocating for their health. Being a Bright Future finalist brings us closer to building a movement that drives lasting, systemic change—where no young person feels dismissed but instead empowered to speak and be truly listened to in health, in education, and in the passions that matter most to them.
Mackenzie Li

Making cooking accessible to all

Gwendoline Thornton
Tillingham, UK

Harnessing her passion for engineering technology and her own experience of disability, Gwendoline has developed Spoonfullness – an app with independent living at centre. Day to day, many of us would not consider accessibility when it comes to making our breakfast or cooking for friends. However, many recipes do not take into account disability, whether that’s sensory tolerance, eyesight, physical ability, or cognition.

Spoonfullness considers accessibility at every step, from its interface with adjustable fonts, colours and display options, recipe filters that take into account sensory needs, and cooking methods tailored to varying physical needs. Gwendoline is breaking down barriers to help young people learn to cook and care for themselves with confidence. Having completed early-stage development and user testing, Spoonfullness is ready for further refinement and expansion before being released to even more people who would benefit.  

Spoonfullness was born from my own experience as a disabled person, where cooking independently has never been straightforward for me and I know so many others feel the same. Being named a Bright Future Prize finalist is such an incredible feeling, it gives me hope that we can make Spoonfullness accessible for everyone, giving disabled people the autonomy and independence they deserve.
Gwendoline Thornton

Combatting food waste for a sustainable future

Santusht Narula
Singapore

A budding engineer, Santusht is passionate about tackling sustainability challenges by developing systems to lead long-term change, with waste recycling being a key element. Santusht sees food wate not as waste at all, but a resource with potential – and which has led him to develop Waste Fellows.

Alongside Young Founders’ Summit in Singapore, Santusht has built what began as a small-scale experiment on breakfast waste into engaging with local farms and restaurants to create a closed-loop system to recoup value from waste by collecting food waste and then processes it into fertiliser to go back into food production. Santusht has ambitions to scale the project, with an aim to work with 50 restaurants and 10 farmers over the year ahead.

No waste should ever go to waste — that's the belief behind everything we do at Waste Fellows. Food waste is one of the most solvable climate problems we have, and having already transformed 10,000kg of it to value across Singapore, we're proof that circular economy models can actually work. Being a finalist is a huge validation that the problem is real and our approach is right, and it pushes me to keep building towards a zero-waste future.
Santusht Narula

Grassroots grant

We also congratulate Liam Harte, who secured a microgrant from ACT. Impressing our ACT Trustees with his idea to surface the impact of phobias on young people, Liam was awarded £1,000 towards his project, Rephobia.

Alongside Queen’s University Belfast, Liam has piloted exposure therapy aimed specifically at young people, which includes therapy alongside a new approach using immersive virtual reality to help teens overcome fears that might otherwise be debilitating. The funding from ACT will go towards the next stage of the pilot, growing the trial size from 30 to 400+.

Phobias affect millions of people, yet access to effective treatment remains out of reach for most. I started Rephobia because I believe immersive technology can change that – and receiving this microgrant means I can take our clinical pilot to the next stage and get closer to making that a reality.
Liam Harte

Finalists showcase ahead

In May, we'll be hearing firsthand from our eight finalists as we film each of them to get to know more about their bright idea and ambitions to do good. Look out on Engage and ACT’s Instagram (@ardonaghct) to watch the videos.

Then, in June, our ACT Trustees will select the four winners, who will each win £10,000 to take their idea to the next level and beyond. We can’t wait!

Stay connected with Bright Future Prize and ACT

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