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Young Kelvin Prize 2026

15 January 2026

The Ulster-Scots Agency, in partnership with the Institute of Physics (IOP), announce the return of the Young Kelvin Prize for 2026.

Following the success of the inaugural competition, the format for this year’s competition has been extended to include a new group entry option, providing students from across the nine counties of Ulster with a great opportunity to demonstrate their collaborative working skills and teamwork, or showcase their individual talents.    

Here’s all the information needed to enter: 

Getting Involved 

Participation in the Young Kelvin Prize is open to all individual young people in Northern Ireland and the border counties of Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan who are studying physics at AS/A Level and Leaving Certificate.  

Entries will take the form of a short video (3-5 minutes) and explain an aspect of Kelvin's work. This can be something that he got right – or something he got wrong. 

Judging 

Entries will be judged by a panel of experts from the Institute of Physics and cash prizes will be awarded to the winning students. 

Categories 

The four prize categories are as follows: 

  1. The individual student/group who demonstrate the strongest understanding of the physics of an aspect of Kelvin’s work (i.e. the video which demonstrates the greatest breadth and depth of physics knowledge). 
  2. The individual student/group who demonstrate the highest standard of science communication or creativity in explaining an aspect of Kelvin’s work (i.e. the video which explains the topic, but in the most accessible manner to a non-physics audience). 
  3. The Best Individual Student Overall who demonstrates an understanding of both of the above categories.  
  4. The Best Group Overall who demonstrate clear collaboration and teamwork in explaining their understanding of both of the above categories. 

Prizes 

The prizes for each category are as follows: 

  • Best Use of Physics – Individual or Group** - £250 
  • Best Science Communication - Individual or Group** - £250 
  • Best Individual Overall - £250  
  • Best Group** Overall - £1000  

** All prizes awarded to groups will be shared equally among its members  

How to Enter 

There are two options to enter the Young Kelvin Prize:  

  1. YouTube  
    Upload your video to YouTube and submit the link. 
    Videos should be entitled Young Kelvin Prize 2026 (Insert name of topic). 
    It is appreciated that not all will be comfortable with this option, so it is recommended comments are switched off to prevent trolling, etc. 
  2. Dropbox 
    Videos should be in MP4 format, and the download link sent via the free Dropbox option – (this allows up to 2GB free transfer and lets the recipient know when the video has been downloaded).  

All links should be emailed to ireland@iop.org.  

Please ensure that full details of the entrant are included in the email:  

  • Name  
  • School Year  
  • Name of School. 

Guidelines 

In line with the Institute of Physics Limit Less campaign, we would particularly welcome entries from underrepresented groups.   

The IOP Limit Less campaign was designed to broaden and diversify the range of young people going on to study physics after the age of 16. Young people from a much broader range of backgrounds deserve the opportunity to get into and benefit from physics. To unlock their talent, the physics community needs to be much more diverse. 

Our messages are simple:  

  • Physics can and should be for everyone  
  • Physics helps you understand the world around you  
  • Physics offers many opportunities  

Opening the discipline will benefit both young people and the sectors where understanding and qualifying in physics is key.  

Plagiarism is not allowed: submissions must be the entrant’s own original work and must not have been published elsewhere, including in response to other competitions. By entering the competition, the person making the submission confirms to IOP that: the entry is an original work, created solely by the entrant(s); and the entry does not infringe the copyright or other intellectual property rights of any third party. 

Please note that by submitting an entry to the Young Kelvin Prize, participants agree that their content may be used by the competition organisers for future marketing and promotional purposes. 

The competition will run until 6th April 2026. Prize winners will then be contacted and invited to attend an awards presentation event to be held later this year.  

Please share this information with students, teachers and educational professionals who you think might want to enter the competition or promote the opportunity to others.  

Information about William Thomson, Lord Kelvin OM GCVO PC PRS FRSE (1824-1907) 

William Thomson was born in Belfast in 1824, part of the Ulster-Scots community that was busy transforming the city into an industrial powerhouse. After attending the Royal Belfast Academical Institution ('Inst') he went to the University of Glasgow and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he was a brilliant student. A glittering scientific career followed. Back at Glasgow as a professor by 23, his research revolutionised our understanding of physics - absolute temperatures are measured in Degrees Kelvin - and his innovations, including the first underwater telegraph cable, changed lives around the world. 

During a career spanning over 50 years, he earned many accolades. He was knighted, served as President of the Royal Society, became the first scientist raised to the peerage as Lord Kelvin of Largs and was one of the first members of the Order of Merit. On his death in 1907, he was buried in Westminster Abbey alongside Sir Isaac Newton, cementing his place as one of the greatest scientists of all time. 

To mark the bicentenary of his birth, the Ulster-Scots Agency and Institute of Physics established the Young Kelvin Prize, with the aim of perpetuating his memory in Ulster and encouraging young people to follow in his footsteps by making physics their choice for university and a future career.