Aims and objectives

The European Union (EU) Contest for Young Scientists is an initiative supported by the European Commission to promote co-operation and interchange between young people interested in science.
The EU Contest gives science students the opportunity to compete at European level with other prize winners from national competitions from across Europe and beyond. But it is more than just a competition: "the young scientists" meet others with similar abilities and interests, as well as some of the most prominent scientists in Europe. In this way, the Commission seeks to strengthen the efforts made in each participating country to attract young people to careers in science and technology.

Only projects that have won a top prize at a national young scientist competition can participate in the EU Contest. Thus, the Contest represents a real scientific challenge for more than 30,000 young scientists who compete annually in their national contests.

The first EU Contest took place in Brussels in 1989. Since then, the event has been hosted in Copenhagen, Zurich, Seville, Berlin, Luxembourg, Newcastle upon Tyne, Helsinki, Milan, Porto, Thessalonica, Amsterdam, Bergen, Vienna, Budapest, Dublin and Moscow.

This year, from September 23-28, 2006, the 18Th EU Contest will take place in Stockholm, Sweden.

The Contest is one of the activities managed by the Directorate-General for Research of the European Commission, and is the responsibility of the Science and Society Directorate, and aims to widely build a more harmonious relationship between scientific endeavour and the European society at large.

Archipelago boats by Nybro quay. Preben Kristensen - Stockholm Visitors Board