# Annual Report 2024 & 2025
This Annual Report’s goal is to summarize the efforts the whole Fab Academy community has done during the last 2 years. We hope you find this information interesting and useful as it is for us a great source of pride. If you want further clarifications, or you want to contribute, please contact us at coordination@fabacademy.org
# Summary
The Fab Academy 2024 (opens new window) cycle ran from January 24th to June 12th, and the 2025 cycle (opens new window) ran from January 22nd to June 13th. Two amazing things happened these in these 2 past cycles: FAB24 Mexico (opens new window) and FAB25 Czechia (opens new window)
We also kept consolidating the pre Fab Academy Bootcamps: Instructors Bootcamp and Students Bootcamp.
The 2024 Instructors Bootcamp (opens new window) gathered Neil, Instructors and Mentors in Fab Lab León - Spain, and the 2025 Instructors Bootcamp fook place in Lima - Peru, at ESAN Fab Lab (opens new window). Instructor Bootcamps are a great tool to consolidate practices and to test new technologies and advances in the topics covered each week.
Online Students Bootcamp (opens new window) on the other hand, a 1-hour 2-days training, is an excellent tool for Students to get the essential soft-skills set that will come handy once the Program starts.
# Some numbers
Students numbers have been oscilating between 230+ and 180+, with a 50%+ conversion ratio from applications.
In 2024, we received a total of 419 applications, out of which 236 students were accepted into the program. Among these, 203 were new students joining for the first time, while 33 were continuing students from previous years. These students were distributed across 55 different Nodes, reflecting the program’s broad reach and consistent structure.
In comparison, the 2025 cycle saw a slight decrease in the number of applicants, with 365 individuals submitting applications. From this pool, 189 students were enrolled—175 of whom were new, and 14 were returning students. Despite the fluctuation in numbers, the program maintained its structural consistency, as these students were again distributed across the same 55 Nodes.
This continuity highlights the program’s stable infrastructure and its ongoing ability to support students across various locations.
These figures represent only the Nodes that ultimately hosted students
In both 2024 and 2025, exactly 55 physical Fab Labs actively hosted students. However, the broader network of authorized nodes was larger—87 active nodes in 2024 and 83 active nodes in 2025. Over the 2024–2025 period, 20 new nodes joined the network, expanding total historical participation to 240 Fab Labs,underscoring the continued growth and global engagement within the Fab Academy community.
We’re always amazed to see the variety of origins and nationalities in our community and the age range!
And we love to see so many Backgrounds filling our Global Classroom.
- Academic Level: University/Bachelor's degree holders formed the largest applicant bracket (237 in 2024; 207 in 2025), followed by Master's degree holders (84 in 2024; 75 in 2025), Secondary education (48 in 2024; 39 in 2025), and PhD holders (8 in 2024; 19 in 2025).
- Professional Roles: Enrolled university students made up the largest segment in 2024 (192 applicants) but shifted closer to parity with active industry professionals in 2025 (132 students vs 144 professionals). Schoolteachers (37 each year) and university professors (30 in 2024; 28 in 2025) also comprised consistent shares.
We still have a long way to go regarding students' gender representation, but we’re working on it!
Applicant cohorts remained predominantly male (256 male / 147 female in 2024; 241 male / 115 female in 2025). The report notes that improving female and non-binary representation remains an active ongoing goal for administration.
# Financials
This is a comparative of Income per each cycle:
And this is a comparative of the Distribution of Costs in both years.
- Revenue & Central Cost Stability: Total central income was $464,065 in 2024 and $476,033 in 2025. After paying local lab reimbursements ($75,125 in 2024 and $70,505 in 2025), net central operational budgets were $388,940 (2024) and $405,528 (2025).
- Expense Breakdown: Central expenditure allocation across both years remained consistent:
- Admin & IT Infrastructure: ~$163k (2024) / ~$171k (2025)
- Faculty & Curation: ~$97k (2024) / ~$101k (2025)
- Mentors & Evaluations: ~$56k (2024) / ~$59k (2025)
- Staff Services: ~$46k in both years
- Fab Conference & Student Services: ~$26k (2024) / ~$27k (2025)
# Scholarships
In 2024 and 2025, Fab Academy Central granted scholarships amounting to $127,665 in total. We're very proud to say that the graduation rate of our students under the Scholarship Program is of +80%!
# Featured Projects from 2024
In 2024 students presented 180 Final Projects! Here (opens new window)
Highlight students for this year selected by the Fab Academy community, taking into account the following criteria:
- Originality of the final project idea
- Field of application of the final project
- Understandability and clearness of the presented contents
Highlighted 2024 Projects (opens new window)
# Featured Projects from 2025
In 2025 students presented 140 Final Projects! Here (opens new window)
Highlight students for this year selected by the Fab Academy community, taking into account the following criteria:
- Originality of the final project idea
- Field of application of the final project
- Understandability and clearness of the presented contents