Now taking submissions, the competition is open to anyone and welcomes individuals or groups from all levels of expertise and experience. The organisers note: “You don’t need to be already working in or for schools to apply” and actively encourage entrepreneurs and scale-up businesses to participate too.

Winning Concepts

The Education Challenge is seeking new ideas, products and services aimed at schools and school-age leaners with the goal of advancing the future of education. To improve the school experience, the focus of the competition is on concepts that demonstrate genuine innovation and that utilises technology to enhance how schools operate or enable better teaching and learning.

For those wishing to participate, judges will also accept ideas from the following areas:

Learner Analytic tools – data collected about learners that can be used to enhance learning experience and improve understanding of the links between teachers and learners.

Solutions for delivering learning in a ‘just-in-time’ basis, or which provide opportunities for teachers to have more control of what, when and how they teach.

Personalised learning – solutions which tailor learning to the individual, based on their own needs, ability and skills levels, and what next to study to achieve their personal learning goals and objectives.

Harnessing digital to support teaching practice – solutions that help with administrative tasks and improving the work-life balance of teachers to free up time, so they can focus on teaching.

John Sedgwick, Managing Director at Cool Initiatives told DIGIT: “We’ve launched Cool Initiatives to find the very best Education business ventures: businesses we can potentially engage with and where, with our help they can succeed thorough access to finance and our proven route to market.”

Chris Hogg,Deputy Managing Director at Cool Initiatives told DIGIT: “We’re hoping this competition will unearth new tools and platforms that make the education process slicker and more engaging, allowing teachers to do what they do best – teach!”

Sedgwick continued: “For the competition, we are looking for innovative and creative EdTech ideas that are still in the early stages of development. In return, we are offering a £10,000 cash prize for the best idea and £5,000 for the runner-up, plus £500 for the other finalists.”

Closing date for entries is 28 February 2018 at 5pm. To apply online and for more information about the Cool Initiatives Education Challenge visit or apply directly here.