Kids’ collaborative art competition

Kid's hands drawing on a colourful canvas

The European Patent Office (EPO) launched a collaborative art competition for primary schools on the topic of sustainability, technology and innovation. Any primary school located in any EPO member state, extension state or validation state could submit an entry.

We received an impressive 110 submissions from 56 schools in 19 countries. More than 3 600 children participated by creating artworks that express their dreams of a better world and their ideas about how innovation can help improve life on Earth. After a preselection of 50 artworks was made with the support of the artist Bernard Boissel, EPO staff were invited to vote for their favourite pieces.

At the end of the voting phase, two of the schools with the most votes had received the same number of votes. As a result, the competition had not just three winners, as originally envisaged, but four. The four winning artworks are displayed below.

On 5 October, during the official celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the European Patent Convention, each of the winning schools received their award in their home country, presented by King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands in The Hague; Áslaug Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation in Iceland; Hem Vanndy, Minister of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation in Cambodia; and Professor Wolfgang Heckl, Director General of the Deutsches Museum in Munich.

As you can see, the ceremony was a particularly emotional moment: watch the ceremony here!