You’ve already done
the hard part.

The EPO Young Inventors Prize, above. It closes on 30 September 2026 and what you built this summer is the kind of thing it exists for. Nominate yourself — you don’t need anyone’s permission to.

“Public” sounds official. It isn’t — it’s a phone and ten minutes. Write five sentences (what problem, what you built, what it’s made of, what it achieved, who it’s for). Take three photos and a thirty-second video of it working. Put it somewhere anyone can see it, with today’s date. Then name the Sustainable Development Goal it helps — the honest one, not the grandest.

First write it down and date it — a notebook or a dated file, free, five minutes, yours from that moment. Then ask whether it might ever be a patent, before you post it: in Europe there is generally no grace period, so publishing first can destroy your chance of patenting it later. Then publish and enter things. There were people from the European Patent Office in the room — that question is free to ask them.

A demo shows it could work. A number shows it does. Test it ten times, not once, and write down every result including the bad ones — especially the bad ones. One test is a story; ten is evidence, and evidence is the thing almost nobody your age brings.

You have a result now, so you can write the email below. Most people won’t reply — that’s normal and it isn’t about you. Send twenty. Jack Andraka sent around two hundred and got one yes, and that one yes took him to a world final.

Subject: My invention from the JA Malta event — what would you test next?

Dear Dr [name],

This summer I built [what you built], and showed it at the JA Malta and European Patent Office event on 11 September.

In ten tests it [your measured result] compared with [what you compared it to].

The write-up, photos and all my results are here: [link]

I read that you [one true, specific thing about their work] — that's why I'm writing to you and not to someone else.

I've taken it as far as I can on my own. Could I ask for twenty minutes to hear what you'd test next? If it's not possible, is there someone you'd suggest I ask instead?

Thank you,
[your name], [your age]

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