Regeneron ISEF Awards

THESE RULES ARE APPLICABLE FOR:

Society for Science-affiliated science fairs and the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair 2026.

The purpose of these rules is to:

• Protect the rights and welfare of the student researcher
• Protect the rights and welfare of human participants
• Protect the health and welfare of vertebrate animal subjects
• Protect and promote good stewardship of the environment
• Ensure adherence to federal regulations
• Ensure use of safe laboratory practices
• Determine eligibility for competition at Regeneron ISEF

ELIGIBILITY/LIMITATIONS

1. Each ISEF-affiliated fair may send to ISEF the number of projects allocated and committed to within their affiliation agreement.

2. A student must be selected by an ISEF-affiliated fair, and meet both of the following:

a. be in grades 9 -12 or equivalent; and

b. not have reached age 20 on or before May 1 preceding ISEF.

3. English is the official language of ISEF. Student project boards and abstracts must be in English.

4. Each student is only allowed to enter one project. That project may include no more than 12 months of continuous research and may not include research performed before January 2025.

5. Team projects must have no more than three members. Teams competing at ISEF must be composed of the original members who competed at the ISEF-affiliated fair and must all meet ISEF eligibility.

6. Students may compete in only one ISEF-affiliated fair, except when proceeding to a state/national fair affiliated with ISEF from an affiliated regional fair.

7. Projects that are demonstrations, literature reviews, ‘library’ research, informational projects, and/or ‘explanation’ models are not recommended or appropriate for ISEF.

8. Artificial Intelligence may be used as a project resource but must be cited and given proper acknowledgements. All materials presented must be in the researcher’s own words.

9. All sciences and engineering disciplines are represented at ISEF and projects compete in one of the 22 categories. Review a complete list of categories and sub-categories with definitions.

10. A research project may be a part of a larger study performed by professional scientists, but the project presented by the student must be only their own portion of the complete study