Singapore Science and Engineering Fair (SSEF)

Participation in the Singapore Science and Engineering Fair is contingent upon abiding by the rules stated below: 

• SSEF is open to all (Singaporeans, PRs and foreigners) secondary and pre-university students studying in MOE schools and who are between the ages of 15 and 19 years. Shortlisted applicants from the Preliminary Judging round will participate in the SSEF Final Judging round.
• Projects for SSEF can be submitted either as an individual or a team project. Each SSEF team must comprise not more than three members.
• Only one project (individual or team) can be submitted per student. Students who submit more than one project may be disqualified from the competition.
• Interested applicants must successfully complete the online registration by 15 Jan 2025 5pm for their projects and submit their documents to be considered in the entry of the competition. Late online registrations will not be entertained. 
• As SSEF is an Affiliated Fair of ISEF, it is necessary for SSEF participants to familiarise themselves with the ISEF International Rules and Guidelines as those rules are applicable to SSEF as well.
• Top winners of SSEF who are chosen to represent Singapore in the ISEF must be Singaporeans or PRs.
• For a research project to be eligible for SSEF, only research work conducted between 1 Jan 2024 and 14 Jan 2025 should be reported. The total duration of research done should not exceed 365 days. Refer to the table below for examples of eligible and ineligible research periods.

Research Start Date	Research End Date	Eligible?
1 Jan 2024	14 Jan 2025	No
1 Jan 2024	31 Dec 2024	Yes
1 Jan 2024	2 Jan 2025	No
15 Jan 2024	14 Jan 2025	Yes

The timeline for registration and submission of projects is provided below for reference: 

Project entries without online registration will not be considered for the Fair. Late entries will not be allowed to participate in SSEF 2025.

• All Main Category and Junior Scientist Category participants are required to complete the SSEF Entry Form.
• Only one form is required per project for participation in SSEF.
• The link to the form will be sent to your SSEF Teacher Coordinator by mid Nov 2024.
•  Please click here for the list of SSEF 2025 categories and sub-categories. Please visit the ISEF website for a full description and definition of the categories and sub-categories.

As SSEF is an affiliated fair of ISEF, all project entries must be accompanied by the relevant ISEF forms.

• Please click here to access the ISEF Rules Wizard. This wizard will help you determine what forms and approvals are necessary before beginning your research project intended for competition at SSEF and ISEF.
• To download the ISEF forms, please click here.
• All individual and team projects must submit the following forms:
  • Form 1: Checklist for Adult Sponsor;
  • Form 1A: Student Checklist, with Research Plan / Post Project Summary attached;
  • Form 1B: Approval Form;
  • Form 1C: Revised Regulated Research Institutional/Industrial Setting; required if the project has an external research mentor supervising the student research, either virtually or on site, conducted at a regulated research institution, industrial setting, or any work site other than home, school, or field. Please keep a copy of Form 1C which would be required in hardcopy for the judging at the Fair.
• Members of a team project should jointly submit Form 1, Form 1A and a Research Plan.
• In addition, projects that involve human participants, vertebrate animals, potentially hazardous biological agents and hazardous substances or devices will require review and approval by the Scientific Review Committee (SRC) and/or Institutional Review Board (IRB) prior to experimentation. These projects require other ISEF forms stated in the table below. Refer to the ISEF International Rules and Guidelines for more information about the forms required.
• Refer to the section on forming a Scientific Review Committee (SRC) and/or Institutional Review Board (IRB) for more information.

Form	Description
(1) Checklist for Adult Sponsor	Required for all projects.  To be completed before experimentation.
(1A) Student Checklist Form and Research Plan	Required for all projects. The research plan and post project summary should be attached with ISEF Form 1A and submitted with the other forms.
(1B) Approval Form	Required for all projects.  A completed form is required for each student, including all team members.  To be completed before experimentation.
(1C) Revised-Regulated Research Institutional/ Industrial Setting Form	Required for projects with an external research mentor supervising the student research, either virtually or on site, conducted at a Regulated Research Institution, industrial setting, or any work site other than home, school, or field.  To be completed and signed by the Direct Supervisor or Qualified Scientist after experimentation.
(2) Qualified Scientist Form	Required for projects that involve human participants, vertebrate animals, potentially hazardous biological agents and hazardous substances and devices.  To be completed and signed by the Direct Supervisor and/or Qualified Scientist before experimentation.
(3) Risk Assessment Form	Required for projects involving human participants, hazardous chemicals, materials or devices or potentially hazardous biological agents. To be signed before experimentation by the Direct Supervisor or Qualified Scientist.
(4) Human Participants Form (with Human Informed Consent Form)	Required for all research involving human participants, not at a Regulated Research Institution. If at a Regulated Research Institution, use institutional approval forms for documentation of prior review and approval.  IRB approval is required before experimentation. The educator on the IRB panel cannot be the Adult Sponsor.
(5A) Vertebrate Animal Form	Required for all research that involves vertebrate animals conducted in a school/home/field research site. SRC approval is needed before experimentation.
(5B) Vertebrate Animal Form	Required for all research that involves vertebrate animals conducted at a Regulated Research Institution.  IACUC approval is needed before experimentation.
(6A) Potentially Hazardous Biological Agents Risk Assessment Form	Required for all research involving microorganisms, rDNA, fresh/ frozen tissue (including primary cell lines, human and other primate established cell lines and tissue cultures), blood, blood products and body fluids. SRC/IACUC/IBC approval is needed before experimentation.
(6B) Human and Vertebrate Animal Tissue Form	Required for research involving fresh/ frozen tissue (including primary cell lines, human and other primate established cell lines and tissue cultures),  blood, blood products and body fluids. If the research involves living organisms, please ensure that relevant forms for human participants or vertebrate animals are completed. All projects using any tissue listed above must also complete Form 6A.  To be completed before experimentation.
(7) Continuation/ Research Progression Projects Form	Required for projects that are a continuation/ progression in the same field of study as a previous project. This form must be accompanied by the previous year's abstract and Research Plan/ Project Summary.

 

Each project should submit the following a project abstract and report via the link (which will be provided to teacher coordinators) between 18 Nov 2024 and 15 Jan 2025, 5pm. Applicants are strongly advised to complete and submit the documents as early as possible. 

Students are advised to type their project abstract, report and Research Plan using 12-point Times New Roman font (or equivalent) with 1.5 line-spacing on a PDF format.

The requirements for ALL project documents are in the following table:

REQUIRED to be included on the upper right-hand corner of each page	NOT to be included on any document
o  Project Code (eg AS001)* o  Project Title o  Names of students   *Project Codes will be generated during the registration process	o  Names/logos of schools o  Names/logos of research institutes o  Names of teacher/research mentors o  Acknowledgement section

The project documents comprise the following:

Project Abstract is a concise summary of the report with no more than 250 words or less than 1800 characters, which will be used during project judging and for visitors during the public day. It should not include acknowledgements (such as the name of the school, name of mentor or research institutions) or external endorsements.   Please click here for the suggested template.

Project Report describes the actual laboratory, field or theoretical research (not library research) for the project. It should involve ideas and preferably, data generated by the student. Credit must be given to the appropriate source and reference, including, in the event that generative artificial intelligence was used, how it was utilised in the authoring of the project report, beyond basic spelling and grammar checks. It should include (a) Background and Purpose of the research area, (b) Hypothesis of the research, (c) an Experimental section including Methods and Results, (d) Conclusion including a Discussion of the Results and Implications and (e) Bibliography of References.  Students are advised not to exceed seven pages, inclusive of data in tables, figures and diagrams. References and appendices do not count towards the seven-page limit. To ensure fairness across submission, judges have been advised that they can ignore any part of a report that exceeds the seven-page limit.   Please click here for the suggested template.

The judging criteria for SSEF 2025 are as follows:

Pre-judging Criteria	Weighting (%)	Final Judging Criteria	Weighting (%)
Research Question/Problem	10	Research Question/Problem	10
Design and Methodology	20	Design and Methodology	20
Execution	25	Execution	25
Creativity	20	Creativity	20
Presentation (based on the written report)	25	Presentation (Total 25%)	Poster - 7 Interview - 18

Each criterion has been elaborated, please click here for the Pre-Judging criteria and here for the detailed Final Judging criteria.

The judges' decisions are final, and no correspondence will be entertained.

More details about the presentation materials required for Final Judging will be provided at a later date.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to visit the official ISEF website to view past projects and obtain other information that may be pertinent to SSEF.

A school-based SRC may be formed to assist the Affiliated Fair SRC in reviewing and approving projects. All SRC members must be familiar with the ISEF Rules and Guidelines during the review process. These guidelines are intended to ensure the safety of students, to protect the subjects and environments studied and to limit the liability of the adults who assist with the projects. Hence, it is important that the SRC ensures all projects abide by these rules and guidelines.

 
An IRB is a committee that must evaluate the potential physical and/or psychological risk of research involving humans. All proposed human research must be reviewed and approved by an IRB before experimentation begins. This includes a review of any surveys or questionnaires to be used in the project.

The Affiliated Fair SRC may override the decision of a school-based SRC/IRB if the decision is deemed inappropriate.

The ISEF International Rules and Guidelines further elaborate on the composition and responsibilities of the review committees. Schools that are interested to set up their SRCs/IRBs are to complete the acknowledgement form here and submit via email to upstream@science.edu.sg or mail it to:

Attn: Science Upstream (SSEF 2025)
Science Centre Singapore
15 Science Centre Road
Singapore 609081

A reply endorsing the setting up of any new school-based SRCs/IRBs must be given by the Fair Director before the review committee can perform their role.

The Junior Scientist Category under SSEF is open to all budding and passionate scientists who have conducted research and projects in the preceding year either as Secondary 1 or 2 students in 2024.

Students are required to submit a science or engineering project that they have done as an individual or a team of not more than three members and present their ideas to judges during SSEF.

 

Outstanding projects stand to win attractive prizes.

Participation Rules:

• The competition is open to all (Singaporean, PRs and Foreigners) Secondary level students studying in MOE schools.
• Projects can be submitted as an individual or team projects of up to three members.

Submission Procedure

Interested participants are to follow the following steps to register and submit the relevant documents by the stated deadlines.

Step	Activity	Deadline
1	Registration and Submission of Project Documents Each participant can only submit 1 project. For team projects, only 1 form should be submitted by the team leader. Registration and the submission of project documents for SSEF 2025 Junior Scientist Category will open on 18 Nov 2024. Each Project must submit the following project documents: o  Abstract o  Report	15 Jan 2025, 5pm   (Open from 18 Nov 2024)
2	Submission of SSEF Entry Form Students of projects which have been registered successfully would need to submit their SSEF entry form . Details on submission will be provided via email.	17 Jan 2025, 5pm  (Open from 18 Nov 2024)
3	Submission of Video A short video (max 2 minutes) will be part of the entry requirements for the competition. Details of the rules and how participants submit the videos can be found here. All Junior Scientist projects must submit a video via the SSEF portal as part of the competition.	3 Feb 2025, 5pm
4	Video Contest: Public's Popular Vote	17 to 28 Feb 2025, 5pm
5	SSEF Final Judging Day	11 Mar 2025

 

To provide students with specialised equipment needed for their research projects. Click here to book your slots!

SSEF 2024

Click here for the list of SSEF 2024 Award Winners.

SSEF 2023

Click here for the list of SSEF 2023 Award Winners.

Click here for the list of SSEF 2023 Junior Scientist Award Winners.

SSEF 2022

Click here for the list of SSEF 2022 Award Winners.

Click here for the list of SSEF 2022 Junior Scientist Award Winners.

Click here for the SSEF 2022 eBooklet!

SSEF 2021

Click here for the list of SSEF 2021 Award Winners

Click here for the list of SSEF 2021 Junior Scientist Award Winners

Click here for the SSEF 2021 eBooklet

SSEF 2020

Click here for the list of SSEF 2020 Award Winners

Click here for the list of SSEF 2020 Junior Scientist Award Winners

SSEF 2019

Click here for the list of SSEF 2019 Award Winners.

Click here for the awards received by the Singapore representatives at the ISEF 2019.

SSEF 2018 

Click here for the list of SSEF 2018 Award Winners.

Click here for the awards received by the Singapore representatives at the ISEF 2018.

SSEF 2004 to 2017

Click here for the list of SSEF 2004 to 2017 Award Winners.

Click here to access the past virtual fringe activities.

As part of the SSEF 2025 Silver Jubilee and SG60 twin commemoration, SSEF will be holding the STEM for good! Contest, to showcase the social impact that STEM can have on society. In the process, we hope that students can be Curious, be Creative and be the Change – to exercise their critical, adaptive and inventive thinking, and communicate their ideas on how Singapore of the future can be made better with STEM!

Participants of this contest are to submit a one-page infographic in response to the following prompt:

Identify a future problem or challenge that could arise in 10 – 20 years’ time in Singapore and explain how STEM can be applied to solve the problem, along with how the proposed solution can benefit Singapore and/or humanity.

 

The infographic should include:

• The identified problem/issue, why it is likely to arise and why it is important;

• How STEM knowledge and ideas can be used to solve or mitigate the identified problem;

• How this STEM solution can also benefit society at large

Students from MOE schools are eligible for the contest, under the following categories: Upper Primary (Primary 4-6), Lower Secondary (Sec 1-2 / IP Year 1-2), Upper Secondary (Sec 3-5 / IP Year 3-4) and Pre-University (JC/CI / IP Year 5-6).

Students who are participating in SSEF 2025 Main Category or Junior Scientist Category are allowed to participate in this contest.  

Registration and Submission: Please register and upload the infographic (no more than 7MB size) through this FormSG by 17 Feb 2025, 5pm.

Late entries will not be entertained.

Entries will be judged based on the following:

• Identification of problem/issue;
• Accuracy of content and appropriate justification of ideas;
• Usefulness and impact of solution; and
• Organisation and presentation of content

Please click here for more information on the contest! 

STEM for good! Contest Timeline

S/N	Processes	Dates	Remarks
1	Announcement of contest	11 Oct 2024 (Friday)	Link to registration and submission form
2	Deadline for registration and submission of infographics	17 Feb 2025 (Monday), 5pm
3	Awards for top entries per level category during SSEF Award Ceremony	12 Mar 2025 (Wednesday)	Details of award ceremony will be released later.