LONDON.- The Royal College of Art (RCA) and Pokémon with You Foundation announce the winners of the eighth Pokémon scholarship, Zachary Miller-Waugh and Aileen Gavonel.

The annual Pokémon Scholarship for the academic year 2025/2026 provides support to two pioneering RCA students who demonstrate the potential for breaking new ground in visual arts, design and communications. In addition to receiving scholarships for their 2025/2026 studies, the pair will be invited to visit the Pokémon Company in Japan.

Zachary Miller-Waugh (MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering) is a design and community engineer from New Zealand. With an interdisciplinary background, Zac works to bridge the divide between people and technology to empower communities. Zac looks for opportunities to experiment and push boundaries across software development, UX, fabrication, and design. Since moving to London in 2024, Zac’s projects have included explorations of alternatives to light pollution, kinetic wave sculptures, and ways to improve passenger safety in lifts. In his free time, Zac develops and runs events such as the ‘Terrible Ideas Weekend’, a challenge to design and make the most interesting and 'terrible' creations.

‘The Pokémon Scholarship is an unbelievable opportunity, and I am so thankful for it! It will allow me to fully focus on my studies in the coming year in ways that simply would not have been possible without the foundation’s generous support. I’m looking forward to the opportunities presented, including joining the growing community of Pokémon scholar alumni at the RCA.’ -- Zachary Miller-Waugh, MA/MSc Innovation Design Engineering student and scholarship recipient for 2025/26

‘The entire Innovation Design Engineering MA/MSc (IDE) team is delighted that Zac has been selected as a Pokémon Scholar this year. With his background in Computer Science and Psychology, Zac has proven himself to be one of our most motivated IDE students and is also actively involved in extracurricular initiatives. With this generous bursary, we're looking forward to Zac being able to make the most of his time at the RCA and fully realise his ambitions. We're very grateful to Pokémon for their continued support.’ -- Christina Choi, Conran Chair and Head of Programme (Innovation Design Engineering, Design Products)

Aileen Gavonel (MA Ceramics & Glass) is a multidisciplinary Peruvian artist whose practice blends ceramics, performance, visual poetry, and collaborative making. With a background in printmaking, her transition into ceramics was shaped through self-taught processes and work with Peruvian artisans. Her work embraces clay as a method of listening, resistance, and care, and explores human fragility, emotional repair, and the tension between science and spirituality. Aileen co-founded the ceramics project ‘Taller Dos Ríos’ and launched the applied arts community ‘Casa Volcán’ in Lima. Recent highlights include performance ‘SHHHHH’ and exhibition ‘El Cuarto de las Caracoles’ at Proyecto NASAL, and participation in the 2nd Bienal de la Amazonía in Belém.

‘Thanks to the Pokémon Scholarship, I have the opportunity to deepen my relationship with clay by bridging empirical and academic approaches to learning. This support allows me to explore new techniques while expanding and refining my technical vocabulary. It also enables me to meaningfully contrast methods I’ve acquired through hands-on, ancestral knowledge with those found in formal academic contexts. The scholarship not only supports my education, but also strengthens the foundations of my creative practice opening up new ways of understanding, making, and imagining through clay.’ -- Aileen Gavonel, MA Ceramics & Glass student and scholarship recipient for 2025/26

‘The Ceramics & Glass programme is delighted to welcome Aileen Gavonel, our first Peruvian student and Pokémon scholar. Aileen’s work is uniquely interdisciplinary, considering ceramic artefacts at the dynamic intersection of the scientific and spiritual, positioning artworks as sensorial, cultural rituals, and embodied performance art. The aspects of 'care' and 'soft-empathy' that clay manifests in Aileen’s work are a perfect fit for a scholarship to address future and alternative technologies in a time of intense distributed sensory advancements through Artificial Intelligence, Augmented and Virtual Realities.’ -- Jonathan Boyd, Head of Programme (Applied Art: Jewellery and Metal / Ceramics and Glass)

‘The Pokémon Scholarship seeks to back “future design monsters” who will shape the landscape of creative art and design. This year’s recipients perfectly embody this vision. We sensed in both candidates a strong awareness of their origins and a willingness to explore new territory. We look forward to seeing how their two contrasting approaches to art will inspire one another and provide new inspiration for the future.’ -- Tsunekazu Ishihara, Representative Director Chairman of Pokémon with You Foundation