The Skellig Foundation’s Leonardo Da Vinci Inspired Climate ‘Solutions’ Competition for Young People encourage young people to think deeply about doable and scalable solutions that address key aspects of today’s climate emergency.

We are looking for brilliant, highly impactful and novel ideas from young people with a wide range of talents. People with backgrounds in the social sciences, the arts and culture, physical sciences, engineering, and digital arts are all welcome to apply. All ideas from people between the ages of 18-35 that match the competition’s detailed guidelines, will be given our full consideration, no matter the level of experience or education of the contestants.

The competition takes part in two steps, and will eventually result in the selection of a small pool of finalists who will compete for two top prizes of €1,000. One prize of €1,000 for an arts/social sciences/society “solution” and one prize of €1,000 for a science/engineering/technology “solution”.  An additional special prize of €500 will be awarded to the best “solution” idea bridging the arts/social sciences/society & science/technology divide. The prize winners will be announced in Amboise, France, where Leonardo Da Vinci lived the last years of his life before his passing on May 2, 1519. 

The ambition of this competition is to help jump start young people to shape and share a climate “solution” idea which could contribute to nudging the planet’s current dangerous climate evolution towards a safer, and more sustainable evolutionary trajectory. We believe that the best, most socially acceptable and environmentally sound ideas come from fully open, thoughtful, and transparent dialogue that enables idea sharing & building.  We feel that this open-oriented process could lead to a more rapid engagement of all levels of society. 

We are a registered charity in the Republic of Ireland: Registration Number – CHY 18462
skelligfoundation.ie