Judging

Judging will be a three-staged process:

Stage 1: The first Short-listing stage of judging will take place from Monday 18th November to Wednesday 27th November 2024. From this year, projects will be judged in one of the 22 ISEF categories. Judging teams for each category will be comprised of leading STEM educators and academics from a range of Australian states and territories, all leaders in their field. Projects will be triple-marked, and teams will shortlist a maximum 4 projects from each category.

Stage 2: The second Short-listing stage of judging will take place from Thursday 28th November to Friday 29th November 2024. The Stage 2 Judging Panel will feature senior assessors from the Stage 1 Judging who will narrow the short-listed projects down to 20-24 projects.

Stage 3: The ISEF Selection Judging Panel, independent from Stage 1 and 2 judging, will assess the short-listed projects from Stage 2 and rank all projects, with the top 9 projects being nominated for ISEF 2025. The ISEF Selection Panel is a five-member independent set of judges who each have had incredible experience at judging ISEF projects or selecting projects for ISEF. From this year, Stage 3 Judging will include each short-listed student or team having a 10–15 minute online video interview with members of the ISEF Selection Judging Panel (details to be confirmed).

All three judging stages will score projects using published ISEF-based judging criteria for Scientific Investigations, Engineering & Technology Projects, and Mathematics Projects. These judging criteria are described on the Judging Criteria page.