Competitions & ActivitiesJuly 17, 2025· 8 min read
KSEF, Korea's national science fair: tracks, judging, and the road to ISEF
How the Korea Science and Engineering Fair works, from its two tracks and 15-minute poster judging to required documents, and why only domestic-track winners can advance to ISEF.
Competitions & Activities
Nobody sits an exam at the Korea Science and Engineering Fair (KSEF). Students design their own research project, stand beside their poster, and defend it to a rotating panel of judges. For high school students the stakes run higher still: top finishers at the domestic fair can go on to represent Korea at Regeneron ISEF, the world's largest science fair for pre-college students, and at other international competitions. One rule matters most to ISEF hopefuls: KSEF runs two tracks, and only the domestic one leads there.
What KSEF is
KSEF is Korea's official science project fair, organized by KSS, a Korean science and technology support body. Entrants pick a problem, investigate it through experiments, surveys, or data analysis, and summarize the results on a poster or slides that they present to judges.
Instead of testing memorized knowledge, the judges assess creativity, logical reasoning, and how rigorously the inquiry was carried out. Strong finishers in the high school division can qualify for international competitions.
Two tracks: KSEF and KSEF International
KSEF runs two tracks to fit students' language and school backgrounds. The domestic fair, usually just called KSEF, is conducted in Korean. KSEF International serves students from English-speaking and international-school backgrounds, and everything, from the submitted materials to the on-site judging, happens in English.
KSEF (domestic)
KSEF International
Language
Korean (the paper may be in Korean or English)
English throughout, judged by English-speaking experts
Who can enter
Korean nationals, Grades 5–12
Any nationality, Grades 5–12
Entry
Individual or team of up to three
Individual or team of up to three, from any mix of schools or countries
Route to ISEF and other international fairs
Yes, for top finishers
No; the event itself runs as an international fair
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The same project can be entered in both tracks. Which one fits depends on your language strengths, where you live, and above all whether ISEF is the goal.
Who can enter
KSEF (domestic). Any Korean national in Grades 5 through 12 may apply, including dual nationals who hold Korean citizenship; students without Korean citizenship cannot enter. The type of school does not matter. Students at regular, international, and alternative schools can all apply, as can students studying abroad, homeschoolers, candidates for Korea's high school equivalency exam, and students preparing for university entrance.
Entrants compete against their own age group:
Elementary division: Grades 5–6
Middle school division: Grades 7–9
High school division: Grades 10–12
Students may enter alone or in teams of up to three. Teammates can come from different schools and grades, but a team's division is set by its highest grade, so a middle schooler paired with a high schooler competes in the high school division. The rules also place no limit on how many projects an individual or team may enter, and projects already entered in other domestic fairs, KSEF International included, are eligible.
KSEF International. Students of any nationality in Grades 5–12 can enter, whether they attend an overseas or international school, study abroad, learn at home, or are preparing for an equivalency exam. Teams of up to three may span schools and countries.
How judging works
The fair has two rounds:
Document review. Judges evaluate each project remotely from its research summary, research plan, and supporting materials, weighing creativity, feasibility, and scientific soundness. They look at the whole submission, not the abstract alone, to decide who advances.
Final judging. Finalists present in person and take questions from the judges.
The domestic finals are held in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, where students set up their own posters and present on site. KSEF International finalists also present in person with a poster, giving both the talk and the Q&A in English. In both tracks, each judging session at the poster lasts 15 minutes: a seven-minute presentation followed by about eight minutes of Q&A. Several judges rotate through, each probing from a different angle, so no single evaluator decides the outcome.
That format rewards real understanding. You give the same talk several times, but every judge asks different questions, which shows how well you know your research and how quickly you think on your feet.
Domestic finalists receive a presentation slot and project ID after the document review, and slots are fixed by category and cannot be changed. At KSEF International, judging times vary by category, so students entered in both tracks should check early for clashes. Dates change every year; the official KSEF website (ksef.or.kr) carries the current schedule.
What to submit
For the 22nd KSEF and the 6th KSEF International, the required materials were:
KSEF (domestic)
KSEF International
Institutional recommendation letter
Not required
Personal-information consent form and pledge
Personal-information consent form and pledge
Research paper, up to 10 pages, in Korean or English
Research paper, up to 10 pages, in English
Research abstract, submitted online, in Korean
Research abstract, submitted online, in English
Not required
Personal or team photo
Not required
Self-introduction or country-introduction video, 30 seconds or less
Proof of registration payment
Proof of registration payment
The details matter:
Paper. Stay within 10 pages and cover the background, purpose, methods, results, and conclusion.
Abstract. The domestic abstract must be in Korean (English is not accepted) and no longer than 800 characters. The International abstract must be in English and within 3,000 characters. Cover your motivation, methods, key results, conclusions, and next steps. Photos, charts, and graphs are not allowed.
Consent form and pledge. Every participant completes one, and students under 14 need a parent's or guardian's signature.
Payment proof. Submit the transfer receipt as a JPG or PNG file.
Poster. Domestic posters measure 900 mm × 1,200 mm and are written in Korean. International entrants may use a three-panel board (left, center, and right) in English. Students install their own posters, though domestic entrants who send a PDF and a printing fee by the deadline can have the organizers print and install it.
International extras. A high-resolution 3:4 passport-style photo taken within the past six months (JPG); for teams, a 16:9 group photo of every member (JPG); and a video of up to 30 seconds introducing yourself or your country (MP4 or similar, up to 100 MB).
Not just a science fair
The name leads many families to assume KSEF is only for lab scientists. In fact it spans engineering, the social sciences, the humanities, and design, grouped into three areas: natural science (say, a particle physics experiment or a cell culture study), applied science (an autonomous-driving algorithm or a new biosensor), and convergence science, which covers interdisciplinary work such as AI-assisted mental health diagnosis, sustainable architectural design, or UX design that supports socially vulnerable groups.
For the 22nd KSEF and the 6th KSEF International, the categories were:
Linguistics, historiography, philosophy, ethics, political science, arts
Invention and design (INV)
Invention, service design, UI/UX
In convergence science especially, projects that show social value or creative problem solving are rated highly. Students whose strengths lie in the humanities and social sciences can present a project that plays to those strengths.
From KSEF to ISEF
Strong results at the domestic fair can earn a place representing Korea at Regeneron ISEF in the United States, the European Union Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS), and other international fairs. KSEF doubles as Korea's national selection event: judges nominate some of the top-placing teams in each category for international competition, and the final national teams are then chosen through a follow-up camp or additional screening.
In 2025, the international fairs were:
Competition
2025 edition
Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF)
May, Ohio, USA
GENIUS Olympiad (GO)
June, New York, USA
International Greenwich Olympiad (IGO)
June, London, England
China Adolescents Science and Technology Innovation Contest (CASTIC)
August, China
European Union Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS)
September, Latvia
MILSET Expo-Sciences International (ESI)
September, United Arab Emirates
Luxembourg International Science Expo (LISE)
November, Luxembourg
These are demanding stages and a chance to engage directly with the global science community. ISEF, the largest, offers prizes and scholarships and can open doors in university admissions. Every one of these places goes to domestic KSEF winners only; an award at KSEF International does not lead to any of them.
One CRI student shows how the route can work. Building on a paper whose framework took shape in the Seoul Research Program, the student refined the project with a dedicated competition mentor, a PhD student in the UK, then won a gold medal at KSEF and qualified to represent Korea at ISEF.
How to stand out
KSEF does not judge the finished product alone. Judges weigh the authenticity of the whole inquiry, the logic behind it, and the originality of the problem solving.
Start from a question. Explain why you wanted to know the answer in the first place.
Solve a problem, don't just run an experiment. Topics that tackle a real social problem have an edge.
Rehearse the Q&A. Judges can ask hard questions, so practice fielding them with friends and teachers.
Keep visuals lean. A clear presentation of the key data and message beats a complicated graph.
News of that gold medal reinforced the point for CRI's team. Hard work alone does not win a medal at KSEF; the research and the way it is explained have to be designed together. On the same topic, how you frame the question, which data you use to answer it, and how you structure what you show can change the result entirely.
Preparing for KSEF
Because KSEF assesses the whole process of inquiry, a short burst of effort aimed only at producing results is a weak plan. What helps is doing every step yourself: choosing a topic, designing the experiment, analyzing the data, writing the paper, and preparing the presentation.
"I had no idea that writing a paper from start to finish would feel so different. After practicing the presentation too, competitions stopped feeling so vague."
— Participant, 2024 CRI summer program
If KSEF is on your horizon, a summer of hands-on research is a good place to begin. In CRI's Seoul Research Program, students work with faculty from universities such as MIT, Caltech, and Harvard, choose their own topic, carry out the research, and finish with a complete paper.
