Our 2024 competition brief, of Living off-grid is formally launched, as we look for products
that don’t require conventional power sources to function.
Creative designers interested in working with plastics are being asked to design a product
that can work off-grid, using anything from solar, wind, tidal, thermal, kinetic, or bio and
mechanical energy sources.
The 2024 competition, which will as ever be contested by university undergraduates all over the UK and Ireland, is asking them to design a functional item which is an original concept or a significant improvement on an existing product – and made primarily from plastic. The product must be aimed at the domestic or sports and leisure markets.
Students must submit their projects by March 31, when a panel of industry judges will
examine the entries and choose their finalists. The award ceremony takes place on July 5.
Chairman of DIP, Martin Sixsmith, said: “This is a challenging but dynamic theme which will
encourage undergraduates to make creative use of the versatility of plastics. We’ll be
looking primarily at the design concepts rather than the minute detail of the mechanism of
the product – but the mechanism does need to be feasible, in principle, based on research.
“There are plenty of ideas out there from which to draw inspiration. Some examples are
highlighted on the entries page of our website, which students are encouraged to look at.”
Design Innovation in Plastics is the longest running plastics competition of its kind in Europe,
having been established in 1985. It is supported by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and
Mining, the Worshipful Company of Horners, and sponsored by leading design and plastics
organisations, including Covestro. A full list of our sponsors and partners can be found on
our home page.