Curious Minds Gold Award
Dublin, 13th June 2025: Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, James Lawless TD, has today announced that 397 primary schools across Ireland have won a Research Ireland Curious Minds Award for 2025 - we were one of these schools.
Funded by Research Ireland, this prestigious annual initiative seeks to ignite a passion for science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) in primary pupils, their families, and educators throughout Ireland.
The Research Ireland Curious Minds Awards give recognition to schools for their dedication to hands-on, curiosity-driven learning in STEM disciplines. Each year, thousands of students around the country enthusiastically delve into fascinating topics by conducting a range of practical STEM challenges. These engaging activities include design and make projects, math trails, rocket launches, explorations of school-ground biodiversity, egg drop experiments, pond construction, vegetable cultivation, marble run creations, coding initiatives, and applying STEM principles to solve real-world problems.
Announcing the 2025 Curious Minds Awards, Minister Lawless said: “I’m proud to announce the 2025 Research Ireland Curious Minds Awards, recognising the outstanding efforts of 397 schools across the country. Seeing so many students and schools dedicate themselves to learning and fostering a love for science, technology, engineering, and maths is a testament to the incredible work happening in classrooms across Ireland. These awards celebrate the spirit of curiosity, creativity, and discovery that programmes like Curious Minds ignite in young minds.
Schools participating in the Curious Minds Awards initiative applied for one of three award tiers:
The Silver Award: for schools beginning their STEM journey, involves a minimum of two classes.
The Gold Award: for schools further along their STEM journey, involving at least half of the classes in the school.
The Platinum Award: for schools that have already achieved the Gold Award and want to further integrate STEM into their school culture.
We will aim for the Platinum Award in the year ahead.
