Emerging Technologies Competition

The Royal Society of Chemistry's annual innovation competition, celebrating the best of the UK’s early-stage deep-tech chemistry talent.
 
Our 2025 winners Apply 16 February - 13 April

About the competition

On 21 July 2026, 24 finalists will come together in London to pitch in person for the Emerging Technologies Competition final.

The competition's esteemed panel of judges who have experience in launching chemistry ideas to market and include representation from internationally renowned organisations: Unilever, Johnson Matthey, Croda, AstraZeneca, GSK, bp, PETRONAS, Ceres, Future Planet Capital, Givaudan, Innospec, Cargill and RSSL, will have the difficult decision in picking winners from across the four categories: Enabling Technologies, Energy, Environment and Health.

This year winners will take away a share of the £50k prize pot to help advance the development of their technologies. 


Our 2026 prizes

This year, we are delighted to announce that there are more prizes to be won than ever before. For 2026, we will be awarding:

  • One top prize of £10,000 per category
  • One runner-up prize of £2,000 per category
  • A Change Makers Spotlight Prize of £2,000

Watch this space for more details soon about the Change Makers Spotlight Prize. 

Why apply

Recognition

An opportunity for your technology to be recognised by the Royal Society of Chemistry, boosting the profile of your innovation, and attracting potential customers, partners, and investors.

Feedback

Constructive and insightful feedback from our experienced competition judges.

Funding

A chance to receive a share of the £100,000 prize pot.

Publicity

Press coverage and exposure of your technology on the Royal Society of Chemistry’s website and social media channels.

Visibility

An opportunity to showcase your innovation to a renowned audience of industry leaders, investors and peers.

Knowledge

Access to a package of support to help further develop your innovation. Topics covered include IP and pitch training.

Taking part

*You are eligible to apply if you are:

  • UK-based and developing a chemistry-led technology.
  • A University entrepreneur, research groups or spinout venture.
  • From a start-up that has raised less than £/€1 million equity funding (excluding grant funding) and have less than 20 employees.
  • Aligned with one of the four competition categories (Enabling Technologies, Energy, Environment, Health)
*We particularly welcome applications from start-ups, spin-outs and academic researchers who are women, from Black and minoritised ethnic backgrounds, who identify as LGBTQ+ and/or belong to any other underrepresented groups. 

Register your interest to apply in 2026   

Our timeline

Competition categories

Environment

Chemistry-enabled innovations to conserve resources, monitor and reduce the impact on the environment or support the move to a circular economy.

Topic inspiration:

  • Resource efficiency and waste minimisation
  • Recycling technologies
  • Substitution of toxic or hazardous materials
  • Environmental monitoring, analysis and remediation
  • Substitution of critical and scarce materials
  • Pollution control and remediation
  • Air: quality and purification
  • Water: capture, quality, purification and recycling
  • Renewable feedstocks and formulations
  • Crop protection and agricultural productivity
  • Sustainable agriculture
  • Circular food systems
  • Future food e.g. alternative proteins, nutrition

Enabling technologies

We welcome chemistry-led technologies that enable the creation or improvement of products and services across a wide product scope, potentially in combination with other complementary technologies.

Topic inspiration:

  • Nanotechnology
  • AI and novel digital chemistry
  • Smart materials, packaging, and ingredients
  • Polymers, composites, and coatings
  • Novel delivery and encapsulation technology
  • New technology for surface modification
  • Soft matter materials
  • Novel catalysts, including enzymes
  • Novel process technologies
  • Novel characterisation and analysis methods
  • Materials for extreme environment
 

Energy

We welcome chemistry driven innovation for new processes and products that deliver significant energy generation, efficiency, or storage improvements, supporting sustainable energy as part of our transition to NetZero.

Topic inspiration:

 
  • Renewable energy
  • Energy efficiency
  • Energy conversion and storage
  • Fuel cells 
  • Battery technology
  • Hydrogen storage and (bio)hydrogen production
  • Low carbon heating
  • Carbon capture, storage, and utilisation 
  • Solar energy
  • Cleaner fuels and lubricants
  • Energy efficient buildings
  • New fuels eg biofuels
 
 

Health

We welcome chemistry-driven innovation to ensure healthier lives and maintain well-being for all and at all ages, including global healthcare challenges such as COVID.

Topic inspiration:

  • Antimicrobial resistance
  • New drugs and therapies
  • Infectious disease
  • Personalised medicine
  • Tissue engineering
  • & regenerative medicine
  • Nutrition & obesity
  • Personalised medicine
  • Devices for drug delivery
  • Targeted drug delivery
  • Novel modes of drug administration for paediatrics and geriatrics
  • Diagnostic devices (in vivo and in vitro)
  • New technologies for infection prevention
  • Screening, collection enhancement and monitoring
  • Measurements, sensors, and microfluidics
 
 

Key contributors

Find out more about our judges, partners, and sponsor who are dedicated in providing support and advice. 

Read more

Previous winners

We are very proud of the achievements of our 76 winners, who have been selected from hundreds of applicants over the last eleven years.

In that time our winners have gone on to raise a combined total of over £250m in equity investment and grant funding, one has announced a £28m trade sale. We’ve also seen the winners expand overseas, enter commercial contracts, conduct clinical and industrial scale trials, and collectively double their number of employees.

If you are interested in collaborating with – or investing in – any of our winners please get in touch using the contact details on this page.
 
Winners gallery

What happened on the day

This short video provides a taster of what takes place at the finale of an Emerging Technologies Competition.

After an initial application process, finalists are invited to pitch their innovations to the competition's panel of judges.

The competition showcases some of the most promising chemistry applications in the UK.

The day concludes with an awards presentation and reception where one technology per category is chosen as winner by our panel of judges.

Register your interest to apply in 2026

We are delighted to announce our winners!

The 2025 finalists pitched at the competition final on 2 July in London

If you would like to ask any questions about the 2026 competition or are interested in judging, sponsoring or being a partner of the competition, email us below. 

2025 winners    Contact us