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Science Engineering

Regeneron ISEF

Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair

The world's largest pre-college science research competition, reached by winning your way up through affiliated fairs.

Run by Society for Science

Official website How to prepare Reviews and tips

Key facts

Eligible grades
Grades 9 to 12, or equivalent
Source, checked 2026-09-01
Recommended preparation
An ongoing research project and a win at an affiliated fair
Why: ISEF is a closed event: you must place at a Society-affiliated fair to earn a spot. Projects may include up to 12 months of continuous research and may not include work done more than 18 months before the event.
Based on the published qualification route.
The organiser publishes this as part of how you qualify or enter, so it is a real condition rather than our suggestion.
Eligible ages
Not confirmed. This organiser may set eligibility by grade rather than age. We do not convert one into the other.
An age ceiling of under 20 on 1 May is widely reported but was not confirmed on the official pages checked. Verify in the International Rules for Precollege Science Research before assuming.
Individual or team
Individual or team · Team projects may have no more than three members. A team competing at ISEF must be the original members who competed at the affiliated fair, and every member must meet ISEF eligibility. If a team project is selected, all members must be given the opportunity to attend.
Where it runs
In person · United States, International
Entry cost
Nothing to the finalist's family. The affiliated fair is responsible for arranging and financing registration fees, round trip travel, housing and reasonable project shipping for all finalists and the accompanying Adult in Charge.Society for Science states explicitly that finalist families shall not be required to pay expenses as a condition of participation. Costs at the lower affiliated fairs, and project materials, are separate and vary.
Registration deadline
Set locally, not published as a single national date There is no ISEF deadline for students. Your binding date is your affiliated fair's, and each fair sets its own. The last date any affiliated fair may be held is 14 April.
Competition dates
Regeneron ISEF 2027 runs 9 to 14 May 2027 in Los Angeles, California.
Difficulty
EliteSelection is measured in the top fraction of a percent nationally. Typically reached by qualifying through a lower round rather than entered directly.
Prizes
More than $9 million in awards across the fairSociety for Science described more than $7 million in awards and prizes at the 2026 event. The 2027 award pool was not published at the time of checking.

What Regeneron ISEF is

Regeneron ISEF brings roughly 1,700 finalists from more than 60 countries together for a week of judging across 22 scientific categories, competing for millions of dollars in awards. You cannot enter it directly. You qualify by placing at a Society-affiliated fair, typically school, then regional, then state, running from January through April. Being named an ISEF finalist is one of the strongest research credentials available to a high school student anywhere in the world.

How the competition works

Each student may enter only one project. A project may include no more than 12 months of continuous research and may not include research performed more than 18 months before the ISEF being entered. English is the official language and project boards and abstracts must be in English. Demonstrations, literature reviews, library research, informational projects and explanation models are not appropriate. AI may be used as a project resource but must be cited and acknowledged.

Eligibility notes

Qualification is through a Society-affiliated fair, not by application. Projects involving human subjects, vertebrate animals or hazardous biological agents need approval from a review board before research begins, and this catches out a large number of students every year.

Is Regeneron ISEF right for you?

Experience needed
Substantial. You need a real research project and the ability to defend every decision to expert judges.
Time commitment
Six months to a year for a competitive project.
What you actually do
Present original research to doctoral-level judges who interview you for fifteen minutes each. The poster matters far less than your ability to explain your method.

A good fit if

  • You have a genuine research question and access to a way of testing it
  • You want the strongest available pre-college research credential
  • You can find a local affiliated fair

Probably not for you if

  • Students who have not started a project
  • Students unwilling to handle the required paperwork, which disqualifies people every year

Compare this against competitions matched to you

Common mistakes

  • Missing the affiliated fair, which is the only entry route.
  • Starting research before getting the required approvals, which cannot be granted retroactively.
  • Polishing the board instead of practising the interview.

How to register

  1. Find your local Society-affiliated fair using the directory on the Society for Science site. This is the only route in.
  2. Check whether your project needs review board approval. Anything involving human participants, vertebrate animals, or potentially hazardous biological agents must be approved before you start collecting data.
  3. Register for your local or regional fair by its own deadline, which is typically months before the spring.
  4. Place highly enough at your fair to be selected as one of its ISEF finalists.
  5. Complete the Society for Science finalist registration, including the project abstract and required forms.

Register on the official site

What skills you need

  • Experimental design
  • Statistics and data analysis
  • Scientific writing
  • Literature review
  • Presenting to expert judges
  • Project management over months

How to prepare

ISEF is won at the local fair a year earlier, not in the week of the finals. The two things that most reliably separate advancing projects from stalled ones are a question narrow enough to answer properly, and paperwork submitted before the research starts rather than after. Judges are doctoral-level scientists and they will ask what your controls were and what your data does not show.

What to study

Finding a question
The strongest projects answer a small, specific question well rather than a large one badly. Read recent papers in an area that interests you and look for the sentence that says further work is needed.
Review board paperwork
Human subjects, vertebrate animals and potentially hazardous biological agents all require approval before you begin. Retroactive approval is not available and projects are disqualified for this every year.
Experimental design and controls
Judges probe controls, sample size and confounds first. A modest experiment with proper controls beats an ambitious one without them.
Statistics
Know why you chose your test, what your error bars represent and what your p-value does and does not mean. Being unable to defend your statistics is the most common way strong projects lose.
The interview
Judging is a conversation, not a presentation. Practise explaining your project in one minute, five minutes and fifteen, and practise saying what you would do next and what went wrong.

Full preparation guide, including a week-by-week plan

Recommended resources

Past problems and materials

Only materials the organiser or an authorised archive publishes openly are listed here.

  • ISEF finalist project database

    Searchable abstracts of past finalist projects, published free by Society for Science. The best possible calibration of scope and quality.

Helpful videos

Frequently asked questions

How do I enter Regeneron ISEF?

You cannot enter directly. You qualify by placing at a Society-affiliated local, regional, state or national science fair between roughly January and April. Find your affiliated fair in the Society for Science directory and enter that.

When is Regeneron ISEF 2027?

9 to 14 May 2027 in Los Angeles, California. The qualifying fair season that leads to it runs from late 2026 through spring 2027.

Do I need a university lab?

No. Many finalist projects are done at school or at home. A lab helps for certain categories, but judges reward good design and honest analysis more than expensive equipment.

Can I compete as a team?

Yes. Teams of up to three students are allowed and compete in a team category. All members are judged together.

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