FLAD and Ciência Viva are teaming up again for the fourth edition of the Atlantic Junior Award – a science prize for high school students, which will reward the winning team with a trip to the United States. The Atlantic Junior Award aims to promote the taste for science and technology, and the interest in the Atlantic among the youngest. We are less than a month away from seeing our winners of the Atlântico Junior Prize, the students of the B+S Bispo D. Manuel Ferreira Cabral School, embarking for Boston, in the United States, where they will spend a week learning from the best that is done in American science, and we are already looking for our new future scientists.
Applications for the Atlantic Junior Award, an initiative of FLAD and Ciência Viva – National Agency for Scientific and Technological Culture, are now open.
This award aims to promote scientific and technological culture through the appreciation of the Atlantic as a natural system and its role in the sustainability of the planet and society.
The Atlântico Junior award follows the FLAD Science Award Atlantic and aims to promote a taste for technology in young people, from a perspective of teamwork and learning by doing, giving visibility to their role in understanding the Atlantic and its importance for the sustainability of the planet and the communities that surround it.
The competition will reward practical applications that facilitate the monitoring of the Atlantic and its ecosystems or that promote the sustainable use of its resources, consisting of the realization of a prototype, instrumented model or biotechnological product. Prize: The 3 best projects will be awarded the following prizes:

  • 1st place: winning team trip to the USA, plus a cash prize of €2,000
  • 2nd place: cash value of 2 000 €
  • 3rd place: cash value of 1 500 €

The monetary values involved in the prizes are awarded to the schools in the form of equipment and materials necessary for the development of new projects in the technological area in the following school years, namely in the competition for the Atlântico Junior award. 2024/2025 Edition Not exceeding the value of €1000, the works submitted must focus on one of the following topics:

  • Marine renewable energies (Example: devices to harness wave and tidal energies);
  • Marine robots with sensors to measure variables such as salinity, temperature or pH;
  • Innovative vessels (Example: remote-controlled solar vehicles);
  • Technologies and processes that contribute to eliminating or mitigating marine pollution;
  • Biotechnology (Examples: pharmaceuticals, novel foods);
  • Approaches to the preservation of Biodiversity.

All projects submitted in previous editions need an innovative addition to the work previously developed. Recipients The competition is aimed at all secondary and vocational schools, public or private, in mainland Portugal and in the Autonomous Regions of Madeira and the Azores. Each team, with a maximum of five students, must present gender diversity and will be supported by a teacher/tutor. Each tutor can support a maximum of 3 teams in the competition. Teams should seek partnerships with universities, polytechnic institutes and/or companies for technical and scientific support. The winning team of the previous edition is unable to apply again. Candidacy The application will be made electronically until December 30, through the address www.cienciaviva.pt/concurso/flad-premio-atlantico with the delivery of the following elements: Jury The evaluation will be made by a jury of researchers and secondary school teachers with experience in the relevant areas.

  • João Tasso de Figueiredo Borges Sousa, LSTS, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto
  • Maria Manuel Gil, MARE and Colab +Atlantic
  • César Marques, Secondary and vocational school teacher
  • Elsa Henriques, FLAD – Luso-American Development Foundation
  • Ana Noronha, Ciência Viva – National Agency for Scientific and Technological Culture
  • Eduardo Pinto, New University of Lisbon

Evaluation criteria: In the documentary phase, the teams will be evaluated by the jury, taking into account the scientific value, technical execution, educational value, teamwork and dissemination to the community, with the following considerations:

  • Scientific value and creativity: 30%
  • Technical execution: 30%
  • Educational value: 15%
  • Teamwork: 15%
  • Community outreach: 10%

Final phase of the competition The final phase of the Competition will take place in a public event on June 7, 2025, at the Pavilion of Knowledge – Centro Ciência Viva. We advise you to read the notice of this contest (Notice – Atlantic Junior Award), where you can find all the details about the prize. To present the projects, the selected teams must prepare:

  • A 10-minute public intervention (may include a video, with a maximum duration of 2 minutes, demonstrating the operation of the prototype);
  • A project dossier for evaluation by the jury (to be sent prior to the date of the public event);
  • A demonstration of the prototype, model or product produced;
  • A poster presenting the project.

The final evaluation leading to the Prize is the sole responsibility of the jury already indicated and the promoters of the competition, based on the criteria mentioned above. The awards ceremony will take place on July 1, 2025 at the Luso-American Development Foundation (FLAD).