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Revealing our Bright Future Prize 2025 winners!

The Bright Future Prize is an opportunity for young changemakers around the world to get the kickstart and investment they deserve to develop their very own community projects.

Founded in 2021, each year ACT searches the globe for aspiring young community leaders – with a prize fund of £40,000 waiting to empower them to take their bright ideas to the next level.

After receiving applications from aspiration young people aged 15 to 21 from around the world, at the start of 2025 we announced our eight finalists who together represented Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Portugal and the UK – and today we unveil the four winners!

The winners of our four prize categories; Your Community – Farhad Gohar, Your Planet – Marta Bernardino, Your Vision – Kanishk Aggarwal, Your Passion – Jarvis Rohr

Congratulations to our 2025 winners!

After much deliberation by our ACT Trustees, our four fantastic 2025 winners are Farhad Gohar, Kanishk Aggarwal, Marta Bernardino and Jarvis Rohr who each win one of our four prize categories and an investment of £10,000 in their projects.

YOUR COMMUNITY

Farhad Gohar
Manchester, UK

After making the choice to tread a different path himself, Farhad is the founder of Potential MCR– supporting teens and young adults to step away from drugs, crime and violence through programmes to upskill and mentor young people to develop their own business ideas.

Having already led entrepreneurship workshops to inspire and equip teens from across Manchester with the capabilities to dream big, Farhad is now on a mission to deliver a new range of sessions and complementing the entrepreneurship programme – this time focusing on life skills.

We’re inspired by Farhad’s relentless commitment to use his own experience of challenge to support those around him seek new beginnings! Learn more about Potential MCR on their website www.potentialmcr.co.uk

I am thrilled to have the support of Ardonagh Community Trust, it’s going to allow me to grow my idea to better support young people like me.
Farhad Gohar

YOUR PLANET

Marta Bernardino
Ericeira, Portugal

Marta embodies the spirit of invention, with a life-long love of mechanics and electronics. Having built robots since the age of 9 and founder of a local robotics lab, Marta is the creator of Trovador, a hexapod designed to navigate difficult terrain in rural areas to plant saplings in regions of deforestation.

This passion for problem solving has enabled Trovador to reach prototype stage and now she’s ready to take the next step by using her technical skills to build a full-scale 1m³ model which is totally autonomous, programmed to both navigate to a chosen location and plant young trees.

Being selected for the Bright Future Prize fills me with immense gratitude and excitement. It feels empowering to know my voice is being heard in the pursuit of a future where robotics drive innovative solutions for climate protection. This recognition fuels my dream of seeing Portugal flourish as a vibrant, green home once again.
Marta Bernardino

YOUR VISION

Kanishk Aggarwal
Sydney, Australia

A problem solver by nature, Kanishk is using his passion for engineering to make waves in the health sector by seeking new ways to support quality of life for older people and those with disabilities.

Hours spent experimenting and soldering have led to his design for a smart-textile which can monitor a range of health factors including pressure, temperature and heart rate – ultimately to help people achieve a much-needed good night’s sleep, which is vital for quality of life.

We can’t wait to see Kanishk further develop and test his innovation in real-world settings.

Winning the ACT Bright Future Prize feels like being handed the ultimate trophy—by none other than my 10-year-old self, who once took apart gadgets with nothing but curiosity. It’s a powerful realisation that all those years of tinkering and learning weren’t just child’s play; they were building towards something real. This competition has been an incredible journey. Standing here as a winner, I know this is just the beginning— and that means it’s time to build. Let the engineering begin!
Kanishk Aggarwal

YOUR PASSION

Jarvis Rohr
Torbay, UK

In rural Devon, there are fewer opportunities for young people to access opportunities to perform and create their own music. That’s Jarvis has experienced the power of music in transforming his own self-belief, collaborating with Sound Communities – a youth-led music organisation. Now working at the charity himself, Jarvis hosts workshops and programmes to help other young people shift their attitude and mental health in a positive direction.

Jarvis will use the funding to organise the very first Sound Communities Youth Festival – which will showcase the many young people connected to the cause and spearhead the next stage of its impact and reach.

Due to losing my dad, I kind of put the idea of winning to one side and focused on being with family. When I answered the phone, I was with my mum and we both rejoiced over the news as it uplifted our spirits in difficult times. She said my dad would be proud! It has given me a new energy to come back to life with, as I now know we can really get things moving in our community with youth empowered music. Let's see how much impact we can make!
Jarvis Rohr

Applause for our Bright Future grant recipients

All eight of our finalists exemplified ACT’s values of humanity, authenticity and impact – and so we’re delighted to award grants to our four remaining finalists to support them to further develop their projects.

Nicole Phan
Hull, UK

Nicole is using her passion for politics and social cohesion to create an app that enables the user to gain an insight into lived experiences, including asylum and displacement.

Equal Eyes takes the user on a journey to gain an insight into asylum seekers and refugees through real-life interactive stories to truly immerse the user in another world, challenges, and way of life. In doing so, Nicole hopes the app will help further empathy and mobilise young people to promote social justice and community cohesion.

I am grateful to have received the Bright Future grant to scale up Equal Eyes. As this is still in its early stages, it is wonderful knowing that this can make a further impact in the world. The grant enables me to develop this, and being part of the prize has now unlocked a network of like-minded young people, so I am excited to hear what they get up to too.
Nicole Phan

Donna Mae Quinto
Shannon, Ireland

Donna is on a mission to create a world where communication know no boundaries. Having taught herself sign language to support a family member, Donna has gone on to create GESTURA, a dedicated sign language app. Using her own experience GESTURA has the user experience at heart, using gamification, quizzes and hand recognition to learn in a way Donna wishes she could have.

She hopes the app will help people of any age to get to grips sign language more easily, with interactive games and finger-spell translation, to provide more engaging resources than she was able to find herself when learning.

I’m incredibly grateful to have been a Bright Future Prize finalist and to be part of such an inspiring prize! It has been an amazing experience, and I feel honoured to be recognised alongside other young innovators who are making a difference. Receiving the Bright Future Grant means so much to me—as it will make a meaningful impact in further developing GESTURA, helping to make sign language learning more accessible for those who need it most.
Donna Mae Quinto

Adriely Cravo
Belém, Brazil

Part of the Biolume project, Adriely has been instrumental in creating a hybrid streetlamp, using solar and biodiesel, to provide public lighting to Amazonian communities without access to mains electricity.

Over 1 million people living in the Amazon don’t have access to power. Adriely is leader of the Biolume project – a new way to provide lighting in communities using green energy. Together with her team members at the Federal University of Pará, Adriely has spearheaded the design of a streetlamp powered by biodiesel made from cooking oil that would otherwise be discarded.

Already, the project has installed five streetlamps in a riverside community in the regions of the Lower Itacuruçá River, with plans to operate in five more communities that would otherwise have no public lighting – improving security and sustainability.

Being a recipient of the Bright Future Prize is more than just recognition; it is an opportunity to expand our impact. Being part of this award shows that we are moving forward through sustainable innovation and entrepreneurship to transform realities. It is an incentive to keep going, knowing that each step can illuminate new paths.
Adriely Cravo

Maria Eduarda Rocha De Oliveira
Ribeirão Preto, Brazil

Having seen a deaf friend struggle with access to the same opportunities at school, Maria has established a digital academic Olympiad specifically for people with hearing impairments and is now ready to turn it into a fully-fledged charity.

Maria believes in education that is accessible to everyone without experiencing inequality. OBMLibras is an Olympiad specifically for deaf young people (LIBRAS being Brazilian sign language). Maria has collaborated with deaf and hearing teachers and students to develop the digital platform, where the competitions are hosted – making them more accessible and engaging for deaf pupils.

Now, Maria wants to register OBMLibras as a NGO to host even more events in schools across Brazil.

Being a grant recipient of the Bright Future Prize made me feel truly recognized for my work! This investment will help amplify my OBMlibras project to change the lives of more and more young people across Brazil—and who knows, maybe even the world. I am very grateful for the award for believing in my dream and for the opportunity to talk about the importance of accessibility in the educational system.
Maria Eduarda Rocha De Oliveira

A growing network of global Bright Future Alumni

Since the prize’s establishment in 2021, we’ve been privileged to support over 45 young people stretching right around the world – and who form our Bright Future Prize Alumni Network.

Bright Future Prize doesn’t end with funding, we seek ways to support them into the future whether that be through mentoring, apprenticeship opportunities or connections. Even better, our Alumni are incredible cheerleaders and sources of inspiration for one another, and even collaborators.

We can’t wait to host our next virtual Alumni event with our 2025 representatives in attendance.

Our 40+ Bright Future Alumni come from across the globe.
Each year we are amazed by these bright young people who dream of a better world and actively work to make it happen! Not only do they care for their communities but also come forward with the most amazing devices and solutions to help them. This year’s winners combine education and music to help young people get back on the right track, as well as sophisticated technology to help sick people and the environment. Winning the Bright Future Prize will no doubt make a difference for them as a recognition, but mostly to bring their projects to reality and start making a difference in other people’s lives. A heartfelt congratulation to all our 2025 winners – and may your future be as bright as your ideas!
Paula Rios, Director MDS Group, Portugal and Employee Representative to the ACT Trustee board

Discover more about Bright Future Prize

Learn more about Bright Future Prize and all our alumni on the dedicated Bright Future Prize page.

Stay up to date with the prize by following ACT on Instagram and Facebook @ardonaghct

Get in touch with the ACT team using info@ardonaghtrust.org