SciFest is a highly successful national STEM initiative with significant impact at local, regional, national and international level designed to promote STEM in schools and amongst the wider public. The project was founded in 2006 by Sheila Porter and launched nationwide in 2008. Participation has grown each year. In 2019 over 10,000 students from approximately half of all the second-level schools participated.

The SciFest programme is managed by a not-for-profit company, SciFest PLC, which has charity status. The Board of the company is chaired by Prof. David FitzPatrick, President, Technological University Dublin and is representative of academia and industry. SciFest is greatly honoured to have the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, as its sole patron.

SciFest’s mission is to provide an inclusive and accessible platform for students in Irish schools to explore the STEM disciplines in an investigative way and to present their findings to a wider audience, thus supporting the development of key skills, including critical thinking, problem-solving, communication and collaboration.

In furtherance of its mission SciFest aims to:

•encourage a love of STEM through active, collaborative, inquiry-based learning

•be inclusive and highly accessible to its target audience by being locally and regionally based and by being free to enter

The SciFest programme consists of a series of one-day science fairs which provide a forum for students to present and display their scientific investigations and compete for prizes and awards. Students of all abilities and social backgrounds are encouraged to participate and attempt to solve real-world problems. The fairs take place locally in schools (SciFest@School) and regionally in TU Dublin (3 venues), ATU (3 venues), TUS (3 venues) DkIT, DCU, MTU (2 venues), SETU (2 venues) and St Mary's College, Derry (SciFest@College). This structure facilitates a comprehensive geographical spread of participation; the students involved are drawn from 29 counties. Each year a National Final takes place in Dublin. Winners from the National Final represent Ireland at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) and the Broadcom MASTERS in the USA, the Global Youth Science and Technology Bowl in Hong Kong and the Berlin Long Night of Science.

The SciFest programme has a number of unique properties which have helped make it the success it is today. The project partners include representatives from the education sectors, enterprise and Government. Partnership with third-level colleges facilitates opportunities for students to visit a third-level college, meet lecturers and view the facilities and courses available. Through involvement with SciFest industry partners and sponsors can meet teachers and students through school visits, judging and mentorship. SciFest supports the proposed changes to the second-level science curriculum and also the Government’s strategy to build partnerships and understanding between education and enterprise.

SciFest is funded primarily by Boston Scientific and Intel Ireland. It is also supported by a number of other companies and organisations.