TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT Insight
THE BIG BANG COMPETITION: CELEBRATING YOUNG INNOVATORS IN STEM
The Big Bang Competition is a UK wide programme that celebrates young people’s achievements in STEM. It helps them build confidence and develop essential skills through project-based learning.
S
tudents aged between 11 to 18 take this opportunity to explore an area of STEM that sparks their curiosity.
Many choose to enter The Competition as a platform to showcase their great ideas and interests to the wider STEM community.
Health and wellbeing is a popular project theme, as students demonstrate their passion for medical innovation and patient care through creative designs or impactful investigations. Inspiration comes from many sources, including personal experience, stories from family and friends, or global challenges highlighted in articles and media. These projects all share one goal: creating healthier lives and fairer access to care for all. Taking part in STEM engagement programmes, such as The Competition, helps bring STEM to life. Students get
the opportunity to think like STEM professionals through their project work. It also helps develop essential skills, such as creativity, problem solving, communication and teamwork in a practical and enjoyable way.
Students often say developing these important skills are a key reason for entering the Competition. They value opportunities to collaborate, think creatively, and tackle real-world challenges, as well as enjoying hands-on experience of practical experiments and design. This
is hugely important, as these essential skills are vital for future careers* and in high demand in engineering and technology. Through our programme, students are building and reflecting on their development of these skills through their education. The Big Bang Competition 2026
is now open. This year, we’re proud to host the IHEEM Innovation in Wellbeing & Healthcare Engineering Award for the second year running. We can’t wait to see more
innovative ideas to help the advancement of healthcare services, whether on a local, national or global scale.
You can help by promoting The Big
Bang Competition to your local schools or educator networks. Inspire more students to celebrate their ideas and creativity.
Entries close on Wednesday 4 March 2026 at 5pm – enter today:
thebigbang.org.uk.
*Skills Builder Partnership, Universal Framework 2.0:
https://www.skillsbuilder.uk/ universal-framework
2025 winners take to the stage. 14 Health Estate Journal February 2026
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