Partners

S&DR200 are celebrating the 200th anniversary of the first journey on the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR). The S&DR200 Festival will present a series of free large-scale outdoor spectacles, events, exhibitions and new art commissions in the public spaces, libraries and world-class museums of County Durham and Tees Valley from March to November 2025. Little Inventors are inviting all 7-12-year-olds to join our STEAM inspired railway challenge as part of the wider festival.

Our planet's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were agreed by all United Nations Member States in 2015 to help achieve peace and prosperity for us and our planet, now and into the future. They are an urgent call for action by everybody. For this partnership's challenge, we selected SDG 13 - Climate Action and challenged students in Ontario, Canada to invent something to help prevent climate change and protect our planet.

Number-one bestselling author Adam Kay and Puffin teamed up with Young V&A to offer the chance to win a truly one-of-kind prize. We asked for all kinds of weird and wonderful inventions in anticipation of Kay’s Incredible Inventions illustrator Henry Paker drawing the winning entry. The winner also receives membership to Young V&A and their invention will feature in the paperback edition of Kay’s Incredible Inventions published in May 2024.

Let’s Talk Science is committed to preparing youth in Canada for future careers and citizenship demands in a rapidly changing world. An award-winning, national, charitable organization, Let’s Talk Science has provided engaging, evidence-based STEM programs for more than 25 years at no cost for Canadian youth and educators. Our partnership developed our delivery of the Climate Champions challenge even further, as we were able to extend its reach into Canada.

iCubo UDD was created in 2009. It is a unique place in Chile, and one of the few academic centres in the world focused on developing innovation and an interdisciplinary approach. Working with iCubo UDD enabled us to offer our Climate Champions challenge translated into Spanish for Chilean schools. This challenge helped children better understand climate change and to think of ideas to protect the planet.

Girls Assemble are on a mission to empower girls, invite them into STEM industries and shatter stereotypes, and we can certainly get on board with that! The organisation offers a variety of workshops based in Cornwall. It provides a space in which girls are seen, supported and invited to shape their own world. It was founded by Project Lead Sophia Medine with Jenny Gratton as Education Lead.

It doesn't take an inventing genius to work out that Inventors Month is a pretty big deal for us. First recognised in the USA in 1998, Inventors Month comes around each May to celebrate creativity, curiosity, ingenuity and experimentation. Our Inventors Month challenges celebrate and explore the great minds of the past and the possibility of ingenious young minds producing spectacular new inventions.

World Book Day is a charity event held annually on the first Thursday in March. The event was first celebrated in the United Kingdom in 1998. On World Book Day, every child in full-time education in the UK and the Republic of Ireland is provided with a voucher to be spent on books. We love reading and encourage children to love it too. We presented a challenge to get them expanding their literary world and interest in stories.

Dogger Bank Wind Farm is in the process of becoming the world’s largest offshore wind farm. In partnership with Dogger Bank and South Tyneside Council, we present the Making Waves: Inventing for a better ocean challenge. Children in schools across South Tyneside undertaking the challenge will expand their skills in STEM learning and broaden their knowledge of the ocean and how it is essential to all life on Earth.

Our partnership with Cumbria County Council allowed us to bring bookish invention challenges to children across Cumbria. Through a series of workshops, we presented literary challenges that not only encouraged wider reading, but implored the children to take their ideas from the page into reality by creating and making.

Children Heard and Seen are a UK charity who support children, young people, and their families that are impacted by parental imprisonment. For the children, they utilise peer support groups, online activities, and activity days at no cost to the families. Our partnership has fostered the Growing Together Challenge and we have attended an activity day to provide a workshop for the children.

We have lots in common with The National Festival of Making. Mainly our love of, you guessed it, making! The Festival provide a programme of work that combines art, manufacturing, making, and communities, and they commission international and national artists to create world class works. Each year, a free family festival is held in Blackburn. In partnership with the Festival and its makers, we presented The Big Reinvention Challenge which saw three ideas made real and showcased at the festival weekend.

Artsmark is the only creative quality standard for schools and education settings, accredited by Arts Council England. They support schools to develop and celebrate their commitment to arts and cultural education for all children and young people. We are an Artsmark partner and together we brought the Dare to Invent Challenge to pupils and helped teachers deliver it via a free CPD session.

We partnered with Metro to ask kids to take it over! Tyne and Wear Metro provides rail travel around Newcastle Upon Tyne, Sunderland, Gateshead, and North and South Tyneside. The Metro Invention Challenge was all about inventing new and fun ways to use it. A selection of the best ideas were brought to life by graphic artists and exhibited for Metro passengers to see!

The National Trust is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Focusing on Seaton Delaval Hall, one such heritage site, our partnership brought the Mischief and Mayhem Challenge into fruition. It was inspired by the antics of the Georgian inhabitants at the Hall! Several ideas submitted were brought to life and exhibited at the Hall in 2022.

The In2 project supported young people in their transition from Year 6 primary school to Year 7/8 secondary school in Darlington. In2 teamed up with one of our makers, artist Lottie Smith, to deliver weekly workshops exploring making and inventing under the theme of 'the coast'. Lottie helped the students prototype their way through invention ideas!

MISD is the Macomb Intermediate School District. In partnership with the MISTEM Network, they have been working with us since early 2021 to deliver creative opportunities for young people in Macomb County. Together, we are connecting students with industry professionals in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. A number of challenges have sprung from the partnership, including MISD Mission Blue: Oceans!, Operation Lift Off: MISD Mission Moon!, and, most recently, MISD Go Green: For a Better Planet.

Little Inventors in space was a partnership project between Inspirate, Little Inventors, and Attenborough Arts Centre. Inspirate connects communities with inspiring creative experiences. The organisation was established in 2011 and has pioneered a diverse breadth of cultural programmes in Leicester and the UK. Attenborough Arts Centre is the University of Leicester’s public arts programme. The challenge involved inventing to help our astronaut as they travelled to the International Space Station!

The Human Cell Atlas is an international scientific project that aims to map all the cells in the human body to get a better understanding of human heath, as well as research in diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of disease. We created a challenge that was a first for Little Inventors, to invent a card game! The aim was to promote learning along with fun. Teachers continue to have access to the subsequent downloadable teaching resources that support delivery of the Key Stage 3 science curriculum through STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Maths) led activity.

The Creative Learning Centres, made up of Nerve Centre, Nerve Belfast, and AmmA Centre, have provided cutting edge training, resources, and advice to teachers and young people for more than a decade. With the support of Northern Ireland Screen, they brought Little Inventors to Northern Ireland to help turn the next generation into the superstar inventors of the future! A number of challenges followed: The Save Challenge, The Home Challenge, and The Inventions for Rural Life Challenge.

Together with NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada), we have offered several earth-focused challenges to the ingenious children of Canada. We began with the NSERC Space Challenge in 2018, which was followed by Mission: Protect our Oceans in 2021. The final challenge was 2022's Mission: Protect our Oceans - Mini-Challenge Project, in partnership with the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. The winners saw their inventions brought to life by professional animators and they were shown at Science Odyssey 2022. Some little inventors also worked with the Canadian Science Fair Journal to publish an article on their idea!

With Birmingham City University, we called all children from Greater Birmingham to come up with creative, innovative, and brilliant inventions to transform how we deal with energy. The little inventors with the most ingenious ideas were invited to work with us and STEAMhouse makers to turn their ideas into reality. Birmingham City University showcased the innovative thinking of the young people of Birmingham in a special exhibition in early 2020.

Little Inventors launched a new free initiative, the Pioneers programme, inviting young people aged 8-12 in the North East of England to take part in the Energy Challenge. Fifteen young pioneers were invited with their teachers to work with us and with professional makers and designers to turn their invention from idea to reality. They featured in an exhibition in Tees Valley in the summer of 2020.

Disney invited children across the UK to invent and draw an idea to make the world better, by taking up one of four challenges inspired by the Disney Princesses. Those who shared their invention drawing with us had the chance to win a truly one-of-a-kind prize: an original piece of Disney artwork of themselves drawn by Walt Disney Animation Studios legendary animator Mark Henn. Four runners up also won a fantastic Disney goodie bag.

Alexandra Palace is an iconic Grade II listed entertainment and sports venue in London, home to all sorts of exciting events. Over the past 140 years it has hosted amazing entertainers, inventors, and innovators. The surrounding park is home to 319 species of wildlife, so we created a challenge that asked for inventions to help one of them. Several ideas were chosen to be made real in an installation in the park.

The Sharjah's Children Biennial is a major art event in the Gulf region and internationally, it celebrates children's creativity and imagination. Every two years, the Sharjah Children Biennial gives children a chance to show their talent by giving them a theme to explore through art. The artworks are then shown in a prestigious exhibition. 44 made real inventions that came from our partnership were exhibited as a part of that year's Sharjah Children Biennial.

We teamed up with Ocado, one of the leading British supermarkets, to inspire children across the UK to become food heroes by doing what they do best: invent and draw their very own ingenious ideas! Nearly a fifth of the food we buy ends up in the bin, so we asked children to invent to solve the problem of food waste. Chief Inventor Dominic Wilcox and ceramicist Donnas Peterson brought the winning invention to life.

The Great Exhibition of the North 2018 was a summer of amazing exhibits, inspired technology, vibrant street performances, cutting-edge culture and magical experiences. With our Chief Inventor hailing from Sunderland, we were truly chuffed to be part of the most incredible event of summer in Newcastle Gateshead.

We're sure Mr. Men and Little Miss need no introduction! The classic children's books written by Roger Hargreaves have been in publication since the 1970s. We teamed up to present a rather ingenious new Little Miss: Little Miss Inventor. She challenged children to think of an invention that would help the ever so clumsy Mr Bump. The most ingenious invention idea appeared in a Mr. Men and Little Miss book.

Together with the Victoria and Albert Museum, the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts, and design in London, we explored the spirit of invention in the Victorian era with students. Five little inventors' made real objects became part of the museum's permanent collection and we ran a series of successful school workshops and created a resource pack still available for download.