About the camp

Finding the innovators nobody was looking for

The Grassroots Innovation Camp & Awards is run by the Center for Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship Skilling (CITES), a New Wave Technologies initiative. It gives students aged 6 to 16 a platform to show practical innovations, inventions and creative projects that solve a problem in their home, school or community, before a panel of judges, with awards and recognition for the best.

The first edition is on 05 September 2026 at Lwanyama Primary School, Nankandulo, Kamuli District. The theme is Awakening Innovation: the creativity and problem-solving of young people in rural communities too often goes unrecognised, and this is where it gets seen.

How it works

1. 1

   A school registers

   The head teacher signs in, enters the students taking part, and chooses at least five of the ten topics.

2. 2

   Contestants are formed

   For each topic, a group of three students that includes at least one girl. Every school also puts forward a boy and a girl as individual innovators.

3. 3

   Judges score

   On the day, each judge scores every contestant on the same six-line score card, out of 100. Paper score cards are typed in by CITES so nothing is lost.

4. 4

   Results are computed

   A contestant's score is the average of its judges. A school's is the average of its groups. Ties share a place. Every score card stays on record.

The judging score card

Every contestant is scored on these six lines by every judge who hears it. The bands beside each line, Poor, Good, Very Good and Excellent, guide the mark; the mark is what counts.

The awards

• Winning Team (Primary)

  The primary school whose groups averaged highest.

• Winning Team (Secondary)

  The secondary school whose groups averaged highest.

• Top Female Innovator

  The girl whose individual entry scored highest.

• Top Male Innovator

  The boy whose individual entry scored highest.