Coolest Projects is all about celebrating young digital creators and the brilliant things they make with technology. This year, we’ve seen just how much taking part can boost young people’s confidence, creativity, and sense of belonging. Today, we’re sharing the impact of Coolest Projects 2025 and looking ahead to what’s next for 2026.

Highlights from Coolest Projects 2025

More young people than ever took part in 2025, with 11,980 young people from 41 countries joining the Coolest Projects global online showcase, a 57% increase from last year. We also hosted a livestream celebrating all participants and announcing the judges’ favourites, which has been watched by over 2,000 people. Plus, we expanded our in-person events, including bringing Coolest Projects back to the USA and running our very first in-person event in India.

This year saw significant growth in in-person events, with a record number of young people sharing their creations face-to-face. Across the UK and Ireland, more than 200 young people showcased their projects to judges, families, and peers. Attendance at the UK event grew significantly compared to 2024, reflecting the strong enthusiasm for digital making, while the Ireland event continued to attract a dedicated community of young creators. This enthusiasm shows how much young people value being part of a creative, supportive community that helps them share ideas and develop their skills.

We were equally delighted to run Coolest Projects USA again, where young people embraced the chance to connect, share their work, and draw inspiration from one another. We also saw strong interest in the new AI category, with notable uptake at the UK and US events.

Participation by girls in the online showcase kept growing in 2025: 51% of entrants identified as female, up from 47% last year. We’re excited to build on this momentum and inspire even more girls to share their creations in 2026. We’ll continue encouraging participation by girls across all categories and broaden local promotion, especially where new in-person events are launching, to help maintain gender balance.

Online showcase: Confidence, skills, and inspiration

To understand Coolest Projects’ impact, we gathered survey and interview feedback from young creators, mentors, and event attendees across both the online showcase and in-person events. 

This year’s online surveys and interviews indicate that Coolest Projects continues to be a powerful driver of confidence and skills:

• 72% of young people and 100% of mentors agreed that participating increased confidence in coding and digital making
• 89% of young people reported improved coding and digital making skills
• 83% of young people (and 100% of mentors) said they felt inspired to continue with computing and digital making after taking part

Young people and mentors told us that the online gallery plays a crucial role in sparking ideas and motivation:

“Kids definitely were excited in knowing their project might be seen by other kids around the world and displayed publicly online, so it’s truly a way for them to feel recognised. It definitely motivated them too.” – Mentor, South Africa

Coolest Projects truly offers a global setting like no other, giving young people the chance to see ideas from across the world and feel part of an inspiring international community.

In-person events: community and belonging

Creators told us how special it felt to be surrounded by peers who love making with technology. They valued sharing their projects, meeting like-minded people, and getting ideas from others:

“I think it’s really interesting seeing a lot of other children that understand programming and want to get better at it.” – Young creator, Coolest Projects USA

Survey data echoes this: 74% of young people said Coolest Projects helped them feel they belong in computing. Many also highlighted the wider skills they developed, from problem solving and creativity to communication and teamwork:

“We [my friends and I] thought it was a really great opportunity and idea to make a project that we could all work on together and it’s been really awesome getting to know these girls and working together, fixing whatever code that we made wrong, debugging, you know…. We’d come together once a week to work on this project. So, I honestly got to learn a lot from them, watching them and how they code because they’re a little more advanced than I am. But, you know, that just means I get to learn more. So, you get to learn skills and support each other. It’s been awesome…”  – Young creator, Coolest Projects USA

Young people returning for another year described how they stretched themselves, from advanced Scratch techniques to experimenting with AI and robotics. They also said hands-on project work is better than passive learning every time.

“…It’s the journey on which I go through to create the robot. And through that journey, I seem to learn much more than say if I were to watch a YouTube video and not do anything practical with it. I learn much more if I physically get hands-on with robotics encoding.” – Young creator, Coolest Projects UK

Alongside the projects on show, young people loved the interactive activities at events (with shout outs for VR and our escape room in the UK), and appreciated the friendly, approachable judges and smooth event setup. A new group registration system also made it much easier for mentors to enter multiple projects.

Dates for Coolest Projects 2026

We’re thrilled that so many young people around the world took part this year, and we can’t wait to welcome even more creators in 2026.

“Make it [the event] bigger so more people can come.” – Young creator, Coolest Projects USA

The Coolest Projects online showcase is open to any young person up to age 18, anywhere in the world. Registration will open on 14 January 2026. We’ll host a celebratory livestream on 24 June 2026.

Coolest Projects in-person events will also be popping up around the world. In-person events are open to everyone up to age 18 in the host country. Family and friends are very welcome to come along too. 

Save the date for:

• Coolest Projects Belgium, 14 March
• Coolest Projects Japan, 28 March
• Coolest Projects USA Minnesota, 11 April
• Coolest Projects USA Georgia, 2 May
• Coolest Projects UK, 16 May
• Coolest Projects Sudan (held in Egypt), 12 August
• Coolest Projects Nigeria, 29 August

More dates coming soon for:

• Coolest Projects Canada 
• Coolest Projects India
• Coolest Projects Indonesia
• Coolest Projects Ireland
• Coolest Projects Malaysia
• Coolest Projects South Africa
• Coolest Projects Sri Lanka

Want to be first to know when more dates are confirmed? Sign up to our newsletter and keep an eye on the Coolest Projects website for announcements.

Get involved

It’s never too early to start making and saving your digital projects for next year’s showcase. Whether you’re into AI, games, web, hardware, or Scratch, there’s a place for your ideas at Coolest Projects. 

Start by:

• Checking out the judges’ favourites in the online gallery to spark ideas
• Starting a project with a friend, your family, or a club, and sharing your progress

We can’t wait to see what the world’s young tech creators will make next!