The Future Minds 18 Under 18 Awards
Every year, we put names to the young people already building what everyone says they're too young to build. Join us in celebrating the educators, institutions, leaders and innovators making a meaningful impact in education.
Why Now?
Across Australia, students are running businesses out of their bedrooms, solving problems their communities have lived with for decades, and doing it before anyone has given them a title or a reason to believe they can. Most of them will never be recognised for it, because a 15-year-old with a working venture and a 15-year-old with nothing look identical on paper.
The Future Minds Awards exist to change that — to hand young founders something other adults will actually read, and to name the teachers and schools who made room for them to try. This is where we say out loud what they've already done.
Award Categories
You can enter as an individual or a team, and if you're not sure which one fits, pick the closest and we'll place you where you belong.
This award is for the student who turned an idea into a real product, service, or business that lives in the world.
This award celebrates young First Nations entrepreneurs building on culture, community and Country. It honours founders whose work carries where they come from into what they make, and who are creating something their community can be proud of
This award is for the founder who found a problem worth solving and went after it, and who can show us the people whose lives are different because they did.
This award celebrates the school that decided its students were ready. It honours the schools that give young people real time, real backing and real permission to build — where trying something ambitious is normal, and where a great idea gets a shot instead of a maybe next term.
This award is for that teacher whose belief in one student became a classroom, then a staffroom, then a whole community of young people who now think building something is a thing people like them do.
Pick the closest one. Our team reads every entry and moves you if there's a better fit — you won't lose your place.
Eligibility
Aged 10 to 18 as at 1 January [2026], attending an Australian primary or secondary school, or finished within the last calendar year.
Educators and schools must be currently based in Australia.
Self-nominations welcome. Most of the strongest ones are.
Free. No entry fee, and there won't be one.
Key dates.
Stay informed with the important milestones throughout the awards journey, from applications and evaluations to the final celebration and beyond.
Enter as an individual or a team, in any category.
Last chance to submit your entry, 11:59pm AEDT.
Shortlists go out across all nine categories.
The live ceremony in Melbourne, winners revealed on stage.
Winners are matched with their industry mentors.
