The Earth Prize 2025 goes to Czechia and Slovakia for pioneering water purifier

In an effort to combat the antibiotics and pollutants flowing into our water sources from industries like hospitals and farms, two teenagers have been named as the European Winners of The Earth Prize 2025 for their innovative water purification solution, ‘PURA’. Notably, PURA is the first-ever winner of The Earth Prize from Slovakia or Czechia.

18-year-old Tomáš Čermák from Czechia (autism advocate and first ever high schooler to become a researcher at the Institute of Plasma Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences) and 19-year-old Anna Podmanická from Slovakia (prize-winning young scientist selected for University of Oxford summer programme) are harnessing the power of light and plasma in their solution. Combining Anna’s research on water purification through photocatalysis and Tomáš’s work using cold plasma (AC corona) to destroy pollutants and antibiotic-resistant bacteria, they created PURA.

While these methods have been studied separately before, their combined approach is pioneering - offering a new solution to tackle antibiotic resistance, which is projected to cause 10 million deaths annually by 2050.

Wastewater from hospitals, farms, and industries often contains antibiotics and resistant bacteria, contributing to the spread of resistance. PURA’s two prototypes are already removing these residues on a small scale, making them suitable for household use and providing families with safer drinking water. Now, with support from The Earth Prize, the team is working on a next-generation prototype capable of treating dozens of litres of water, bringing PURA closer to large-scale impact.

The long-term vision is to scale the easy-to-integrate technology for use in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), tackling resistance at its source. This energy-efficient, cost-effective solution could transform water purification and ensure a healthier future.

The team impressed The Earth Prize’s expert jury with their final pitch, having excelled in the programme’s incubation and mentorship phases, and will now receive $12.5K to scale up their idea into a new prototype. 18-year-old Tomáš Čermák from PURA reflected on the significance of PURA being named the Regional Winner for Europe: “The news was absolutely incredible! When I realized that out of all the innovative projects, PURA has been recognized as the best in Europe, it truly blew my mind. This recognition and funding enables us to bring our research projects to life, with the creation of a small-scale device being just the beginning. We’re now looking to expand our team, engage more students, and gain the support and capital needed to propel PURA into the future.” 

The Earth Prize aims to empower the next generation with all the tools they need to develop their eco solutions for real life impact, including one-to-one mentoring, learning resources and funding of $100K for the winning teams to scale up. Since 2021, The Earth Prize has reached over 15,000 young people across 160 countries and territories, and awarded $500K to the top teams.

Previous applicants have garnered global media attention in outlets such as Forbes, Business Insider, EuroNews, Positive.News and UN Today, and continue to scale up their solutions after the competition has ended. For instance, team Delavo (Winners of The Earth Prize 2023), who invented a cutting-edge filter that recycles up to 90% of toxic laundry waste water, partnered with a national manufacturer and applied for a patent to make their solution a reality.

The Earth Prize was started by The Earth Foundation, a Swiss non-profit organization based in Geneva, as a way to empower and educate young people to tackle environmental challenges. As young people live through and observe extreme weather events such as the LA wildfires, many are mobilised to act - choosing to create solutions for our planet rather than march in protest.

A recent study showed that 59% of youth and young adults are very or extremely worried about climate change, and more than 45% said their feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily life and functioning.

Peter McGarry, Founder of The Earth Foundation, commented on this year’s competition: “The 2025 winners of The Earth Prize are a true testament to the boundless creativity and passion of today's youth. Their bold solutions tackle the most urgent environmental challenges with the power to transform our world. I invite everyone to engage with these remarkable ideas, support their implementation, and be inspired to take action in their own communities. Together, we can turn these promising innovations into global environmental solutions.”

Public voting for the Global Winner opens Sunday, April 13, just after the final Regional Winner is announced. Cast your vote on The Earth Prize website until Tuesday, April 22 (Earth Day): https://www.theearthprize.org/vote

About The Earth Foundation
The Earth Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, dedicated to inspiring, educating, mentoring and empowering students and young entrepreneurs to address environmental changes with innovative ideas. The Earth Foundation was established as a result of the 2019 rallies organized by students to raise environmental awareness. This passion to fight for climate change inspired the creation of their flagship initiative, The Earth Prize—the world’s largest environmental competition and 'ideas incubator' for young people. The competition aims to inspire and empower the next generation of environmental innovators, supporting participants with all the tools they need to develop their eco solutions for real life impact, including one on one mentoring, learning resources and $100,000 funding for the winners. To learn more about The Earth Foundation visit: https://www.earth-foundation.org/. To learn more about The Earth Prize visit: https://www.earth-foundation.org/earthprize/.

• Previous coverage: Forbes, Business Insider, EuroNews, News, UN Today, Yahoo! Tech, The Cool Down
• Press contact: Charlotte Tucker, charlotte@earth-foundation.org

Read also

• Neutrino is lighter than previously thought
• Scientists discover compound that “should not exist”
• Horizontal mitochondrial transfer is a key process in tumor biology
• Scientists on track of finding a treatment for autoimmune hair loss
• LASER-PRO: Linking Science and Industry to Shape Europe’s High-Tech Future
• Martian mud flows: a little salt makes a big difference
• Violent dance of massive gas giant planets
• Scientists discover new species of rare fungi thanks to arsenic analysis
• MICAL1 plays a key role in cellular dynamics by controlling the cytoskeleton
• Groundbreaking study maps brain’s recovery process after stroke