ISEF (Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair)

The Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) is the world's largest pre-college science competition, bringing together nearly 2,000 students from over 60 countries each year to compete for more than 9 million USD in awards. 

Descriptions:

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Competition Details:

Essentially, ISEF is a celebration of student-led scientific inquiry, exploration, and engineering design. This experience often involves crafting a year-long research project and presenting to judges.

  • The first deliverable is a project display board in which students will present their work on a standard display board with a similar structure to an academic research paper. The goal is to present a clear, logical, and professional summary of the conducted research.

    The judging interview is arguably the main component, with each student having around 15 minutes to present their research to judges and answer questions. A deep understanding of the research will have to be demonstrated here.

    Lastly, there is supporting documentation, which is typically detailed research logbooks. This is sometimes not mandatory, but highly recommended.

  • The judging criteria generally include the following key areas:

    1. Research question - its purpose and focus

    2. Design and methodology - how well-designed the plan is

    3. Execution - thoroughness of the data collection

    4. Presentation - including both interview and project display board

Official website: click here

Award Categories:

Time & Location:

for 2026, it was May 9th to May 15th at Phoenix, Arizona. The date and place for the next year is to be determined.

  • Grand Awards are presented in each of the 22 ISEF categories, as follows:

    • 1st Award: $6,000 cash award

    • 2nd Award: $2,400 cash award

    • 3rd Award: $1,200 cash award

    • 4th Award: $600 cash award

    There are LARGE amounts of prizes from additional awards, which will be awarded to some of the 1st Award winners.

  • Each year, many organizations other than ISEF provide awards, scholarships and internships. These organization represent a wide variety of disciplines and please refer to the official website for more details.

Advancement Pathways:

To compete in ISEF, students must qualify through an ISEF-affiliated fair. This process usually looks like:

  1. School Fair

  2. Regional/State Fair

  3. National Fair (e.g. Canada-Wide Science Fair for Canada), top performing students will generally be selected to compete in ISEF representing their country

Please note that this process varies from nation to nation.