Hosted by our Group charity, ACT (Ardonagh Community Trust), this annual competition searches the world for young entrepreneurs on a mission to do good, investing in their project ideas to make a difference to the communities and world around them.
2026 marks the fifth anniversary of the prize, and with submissions coming in from right across the globe, ACT’s board of trustees have selected the winners of each of the four prize categories, with the incredible shortlist of finalists representing Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, Portugal, Singapore and the UK.
The four worthy winners each receive £10,000 to take their ideas to the next level.
Congratulations to the 2026 winners
Your Community winner
Murphy Kasumu Northfleet, UK
Exam performance at school can feel like the only route to get that first job outside of education. However, there’s a whole host of other ways to gain skills or insight which could lead to employment or access to higher education.
Work placements can be incredibly important to help get a flavour of various career choices and to develop experience. Murphy has created a student-led digital platform, Gradify, to help young people find and secure work placements, insight days and career opportunities.
Not only a search platform, Gradify also provides resources to help get those opportunities, such as CV templates, advice on covering letters and support with interviews.
Just four months after developing the initial app, it already has over 1,000 users. Thanks to the Bright Future funding, Murphy will be able to improve the technology further, host it on the app store and expand to more schools in Kent, the UK, and beyond!
“Winning the Bright Future Prize came as a huge surprise, and it means so much to me. Seeing my family and school so proud makes all the hard work worthwhile, and this funding will help Gradify make an even bigger impact on young people across the UK.” Murphy Kasumu
Your Vision winner
Gwendoline Thornton Essex, UK
Gwen is breaking down barriers to help people learn to cook and care for themselves with confidence. Harnessing her passion for engineering technology and her own experience of disability, she’s developed Spoonfullness – an app with independent living at its heart and centre.
Many recipes do not take into account accessibility, whether that’s sensory tolerance, eyesight, physical ability, or cognition – meaning trying to cook up a meal could be anything from challenging to impossible.
Spoonfullness on the other hand 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.
Having completed early-stage development and user testing, Gwen will use the Bright Future funding to further enhance Spoonfullness, including adding a community feature to enable users to engage with recipes and one another.
“Winning the Bright Future Prize is truly incredible and I’m so grateful to Ardonagh Community Trust. This funding will be transformational, allowing us to reach the next level and make a difference to people’s lives.” Gwendoline Thornton
Your Planet winner
Santusht Narula Singapore
An engineer and entrepreneur combined, Santusht is on a mission to tackle the environmental impact of food waste in Singapore. A place with vibrant hawker culture, behind the scenes only around 18% of food waste is currently recycled.
Santusht sees food waste as a resource with potential, leading him to develop Waste Fellows, a closed-loop system that recoups value by collecting food waste from restaurants before processing it into fertiliser within 48 hours, which is then distributed to farms to go back into food production.
Santusht has ambitions to scale up Waste Fellows and will use the Bright Future funding to expand to working with 50 restaurants and 10 farmers over the year ahead.
“Winning the ACT Bright Future Prize feels unreal. The last few months of planning and pushing the idea have finally paid off, and now we get to go even bigger. This funding unlocks our next goal of converting 100,000kgs of food waste into value, letting us scale our digesters and logistics to match our ambitions. My team and I want to change the way the world looks at food waste, and we’re hugely grateful to ACT for backing us to do so.” Santusht Naurla
Your Passion winner
Mackenzie Li Melbourne, Australia
Mackenzie aspires to improve systems to better support young people’s health and wellbeing. She’s seen how difficult it can be to get the right physical and mental health support, which is where The Aletheia Project steps in.
Named after the Greek goddess of truth and sincerity, The Aletheia Project addresses the gap between provision of health services and the confidence and understanding to access it.
This health literacy and inclusion initiative improves young people’s self-assurance to navigate health and mental health systems in three key ways: “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.
Using the Bright Future funding, Mackenzie will be able to lead a 12-month pilot in her home city of Melbourne before taking the initiative national across Australia.
“To me, the Aletheia Project has always been about making visible what is often overlooked: the struggles young people carry quietly and the power of being genuinely heard. Winning the Bright Future Prize is incredibly exciting because it transforms an idea into an opportunity for action. This funding will help us pilot the project and move closer to a future where youth wellbeing is recognised not simply as a personal challenge, but as a global health priority worthy of attention, investment and lasting change. To me, this isn’t just the beginning of a project, it’s the beginning of a lifelong commitment to advocating for young people’s wellbeing.” Mackenzie Li
Backing bright ideas of our finalists
All eight of this year’s finalists reached the shortlist owing to their determined mindsets and compassionate spirits. In recognition of the worthy talent across the board, our four remaining finalists have all been awarded an ACT grant of £5,000 to empower them to further develop their bright ideas.
Aditya Banerjee Leiria, Portugal
Having lived in both Brazil and now Portugal, Aditya has drawn on his insight into the devastating effects of storms and pollution to create Rowbot, a semi-autonomous robotic buoy which provides real-time data of various aspects of water quality.
With dreams of specialising in environmental robotics, Aditya’s creation sees data being fed through to a digital water dashboard, with the ultimate aim of establishing a network of Rowbot buoys which can collect and share information in an Open Access model, to enable better environmental policy decisions.
“Being selected for the Bright Future Prize is an incredible honour, and I’m deeply grateful to the team for believing in Rowbot. As the only recipient from Portugal, I hope this reminds others that big ideas can start anywhere. To me, the future isn’t something we wait for, it’s something we build together. I’m excited to keep building Rowbot alongside such an inspiring group of innovators, and I hope our work encourages more people to believe that meaningful change starts with simply deciding to build. I can’t wait for what’s next.” Aditya Banerjee
Rosalie Norton Hamilton, New Zealand
Through lyrics and music, Rosalie captures the spirit of two cultures close to her roots – Ni Vanuatu Pasifika and Māori, to inspire young people in the community to preserve and be proud of their heritage.
Her music shares themes of identity, culture and belonging and 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.
“Wow! I am so honoured to receive this grant and support. It means so much to be a finalist and have my music, project and community backed in this way by the Ardonagh Community Trust. Thank you to Bright Future Prize for the opportunity and support to share my story and culture further, I am so grateful.” Rosalie Norton
João Marcos Almeida dos Santos Arapiraca, Brazil
Education is increasingly digital, but this can cause issues in regions where access to power and the internet is not always possible.
Inspired by his own experience growing up in a rural region, João has developed Pré Parei (“Prepared”), a hybrid programme which includes a portable solar kit to generate a local Wi-Fi hotspot regardless of electricity supply, plus with an education app that provides learning resources tailored to a student’s individual pace and learning style.
“Receiving this support from ACT is so generous and incredible. The word “hope” comes to mind, and that’s the word so many people will have after this incredible support from ACT: to bring hope and make access to education more possible, education that is accessible and suitable for all children, young people, and diverse populations, rural communities, and places where there is social vulnerability. I am grateful for the opportunity and for all of life and for my project. Thank you for the hope and generosity you are showing. I feel happy about this achievement.” João Marcos Almeida dos Santos
Jin Razia Khin Shan Lee Perth, Australia
Harnessing her family’s own experience leaving Burma, Jin has navigated creating a new life in Australia, with all its challenges along the way.
Her project, Equistart, seeks to support other young people who have left their homeland by combining resources with a structured community mentorship programme to help them establish the roots to begin building a new sense of belonging.
A growing network of global alumni
Since the prize was founded in 2021, our Bright Future Prize Alumni Network now includes 59 inspirational young people spanning nine countries right around the world.
In recognition of the prize’s fifth anniversary, we opened for project proposals from all our existing alumni (finalists and winners from 2021–2025), with a dedicated one-off pot of £10,000 to invest in their continued development. We can’t wait to share with you the recipients of this special Alumni fund very soon.
Bright Future Prize doesn’t end with funding, we also seek ways to support our Alumni into the future, whether that be through mentoring, apprenticeship opportunities or connections. Even better, our Alumni are incredible cheerleaders and sources of inspiration for one another, and even collaborators.
We can’t wait to host our next virtual Alumni event with our 2026 representatives in attendance.
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