Young scientists from Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary have been acclaimed as 1st prize winners of the 22nd EU Contest for Young Scientists. Their projects have been selected from 85 projects coming from 37 countries. Second and third prizes as well as the International prize were awarded to 7 other projects, from Poland, Germany, Portugal, Latvia, Italy and Brazil.

The European Union Contest for Young Scientists was set up by the European Commission as part of the Science and Society programme under the Seventh Framework Programme for Research (FP7). Its aim is to facilitate co-operation and interchange between young scientists with similar abilities and interests and to give them an opportunity to be guided by some of the most prominent scientists in Europe.

This year, the Museum of Electricity in Lisbon (Portugal) hosted 125 contestants from 37 countries across Europe and beyond, including Canada, the USA, China, and Brazil. From 24 to 29 September, the students presented 85 projects to an International Jury chaired by Prof Hagit Messer-Yaron.

The 16 winning contestants, aged from 14 to 21, shared a total of 51.500 Euro in prizes for their top-quality innovative scientific projects.

The topics covered a broad spectrum of scientific areas: biology, chemistry, computing, social sciences, environment, mathematics, materials, engineering and medicine. The standard of entries is consistently high, and several past participants have achieved major scientific breakthroughs, or set up businesses to market the ideas developed for the Contest.

The contest started in 1989 with the participation of 15 countries, and this year reached 37 countries as well as one of the European Schools. A total of 2074 participants (627 girls and 1447 boys) have competed since the start of this International event.