How to enter
The Big Bang Competition is open to young people aged 11 to 18 in state-funded secondary education or who are home educated or who enter as part of a community group.
Young people attending independent or private schools, colleges or sixth forms are not eligible to enter The Big Bang Competition 2026. However, to support state-funded schools - joint entries can be submitted from teams comprising an equal number of independent school/partner state school students, via the state school entry.
Please make sure you are eligible to enter The Competition before you start your entry. Have a look at our rules and eligibility for more details.
The Big Bang Competition is closed.
Key dates
Learn everything you need to know about The Big Bang Competition. Find out what happens and when:
- Entry deadline: 4 March 2026 at 5pm
Don't forget the entry deadline! This date is final and we can't offer extensions. If you need to make a change, you can edit your entry after submitting, up until the deadline
- Finalist announcement: 21 April 2026
Exciting! All entrants will get an email sharing the status of your project and if you're a finalist. Fingers crossed!
- Video call judging: 29 April to 7 May 2026
Over a week, the finalists for Special Awards and those in the running for top prizes - UK Young Scientist(s), UK Young Engineer(s) and UK Young Technologist(s), will be invited to further judging over a Microsoft Teams video call with a panel of friendly judges. Now's your time to shine! If you're a finalist for one of these awards, The Competition team will be in touch to arrange dates and times for these calls
- Project showcase: taking place at The Big Bang Fair in June 2026
Share your project with the world! Select finalists will be invited to showcase their project at The Big Bang Fair. We'll start to notify finalists from 21 April if your project has been selected to showcase at The Big Bang Fair. Due to space, we can't have everyone, but any finalists not initially selected to showcase can join a waitlist. Once space opens up at the showcase, we'll get in touch!
- Winners announced: At The Big Bang Competition Awards Ceremony, taking place at The Big Bang Fair in June 2026
Assessment criteria
One of the first things to consider when you start your project is our assessment criteria – the different things that our judges will consider when scoring your project.
The main advice from judges is for competitors to provide as much relevant information as possible. Remember, your project does not need to be finished to enter The Competition. We understand that restrictions may impact students’ ability to fully complete their projects, and judges will bear this in mind when reviewing your work.
The questions under each section are simply prompts to get you thinking about each step of your project, not a checklist!
Familiarise yourself with the full criteria below:
- 1. Project overview
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This is the first-time judges will hear or read about your project. Judges will look for a few sentences summarising your overall project, including a brief but clear outline of your project aims, how you planned to achieve your project aims, your key results and conclusions, and how your work may impact the wider community/environment.
- 2. Project concept
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Judges will look for a clear project aim, your reason for choosing this area to focus on, and an understanding of the wider impact your work may have on the world.
Consider the following questions:
- What is the aim of your project? What are you hoping to find out? What problem are you looking to resolve? And why is it an important problem to solve?
- Why did you choose this project? Did you consider any other ideas? Who or what inspired you?
- What will you create, or what experiment will you design, to achieve your aim(s)?
- Who might benefit from your work? What impact could your project have on the wider community/ the environment?
- 3. Project process
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Judges want to know how you carried out your project, any research that you carried out, how you planned and organised your time, your experimentation and refinement process.
Consider the following questions:
- Did you carry out any background research before planning your work? What did you find out from the research?
- What process and steps did you take to achieve your project aim?
- What different ideas or approaches did you consider to achieve your project aim? Were there any barriers that stopped you from using the most suitable approach?
- What are the benefits and negatives of the approach and method that you chose?
- How will you know if your results support your project aim? If testing was not possible, how could you have tested and evaluated your results?
- How did you plan your time and organise your work? If working as a team, how did you delegate tasks amongst yourselves?
- 4. Project outcome
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Judges will be looking for clear communication of results, and understanding of how your results support or challenge your project aims, and how your findings may impact the wider community/world.
Consider the following questions:
- What were your results? What did you find out, or what did you make by completing your project?
- Does your project outcome solve the problem you set out to tackle/meet your project aim? Did you discover anything new or unexpected?
- What conclusions can you make based on your results?
- What impact could your results have on the wider community/world
- What difficulties did you face during the project process and how did you / could you have gone around these?
- If you were unable to complete your project as planned, what you would you have expected to see?
- 5. Reflections and next steps
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Judges will be looking to see your understanding of the product development life cycle or scientific process, what skills you feel you have developed during your project, for ways you can continue to build on your project work, things you might have done differently, and what you enjoyed.
Consider the following questions:
- What did you learn whilst working on your project?
- If you had more time and resources, how might you take your project further?
- Could you bring your project to the commercial or industrial market?
- If you could do your project again, what would you change?
- Did you learn any new skills?Were there any aspects of the project that were challenging? How did you overcome any challenges?
- What was the most enjoyable part of the project work, and why?
- What advice would you give to someone who wanted to do STEM project work in the same field?
- 6. Personal skills
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Throughout your entry, judges will be assessing the following skills and how you have demonstrated them during your project. Judges will be looking for:
- Understanding and application of scientific, engineering and/or technological methods
- Clear communication - use of visuals to demonstrate your project and answering questions directly
- Enthusiasm for your project
- Evidence of innovation and creativity
- Problem solving
- Resilience - how well you dealt with challenges that you encountered
- Teamwork and leadership, for group projects – making sure everyone had a clear role and purpose and everyone’s ideas were heard
- Independence and self-motivation, for individual projects – your time management and goal setting
Advice on entry formats
This year competitors are asked to submit a written project entry or a short video about their project.
When completing your written entry, please ensure you cover the assessment criteria. If you are submitting a written entry, please keep these word counts in mind:
- Project overview: 150 words max
- Project concept: 300 words max
- Project process: 400 words max
- Project outcomes: 400 words max
- Project ethics: 200 words max
- Next steps and reflections: 350 words max
If you are submitting a video entry, videos should be no longer than 5 minutes.
Don't forget - your entry doesn't need to be perfect, or even completely finished. We want to hear your ideas. How does your idea solve problems? What would you do differently? What went well? Let your creativity shine!
— The Big Bang Competition Head Judges – Andy, Helena and Ainsley
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