If you are an Indian student who wants to compete at Regeneron ISEF, the world's largest pre-college science fair, there is exactly one door: the IRIS National Fair. Top IRIS projects form Team India at ISEF each year. Here is how the fair actually works, what its screeners reject on sight, and how the students who win prepare differently.
The facts first
- Who: Students in Classes 5 to 12, Indian-origin, studying in India. Individual or a team of two.
- What you submit: A project synopsis, a full research paper, and a 90-second project video, all online.
- When: The registration and submission window runs August 1 to early October, with no extensions. Miss it and the season is over, and if you are in Class 12, so is your eligibility.
- Then: A Scientific Review Committee screens submissions, finalists present at the National Fair, winners join mentoring camps, and the top projects represent India at Regeneron ISEF in Los Angeles in May.
What IRIS rejects, in its own words
IRIS wants original research supported by experimental data, or novel engineering improvements over existing solutions, across its 21 categories. It explicitly turns away textbook replications, essays without personal experimentation, and display-only models with no research underneath.
Read that list again, because it describes most school science projects in India. A working model of a water cycle is a display. A well-written report on renewable energy is an essay. What survives screening is a question you answered with data you collected, or a design you built and measured against what already exists.
The four moves that separate winners
1. Respect the twelve weeks. IRIS expects roughly twelve weeks of data collection behind a project. Winners start their research in the spring or early summer, not in August when the window opens. The submission month is for polishing, not producing.
2. Write the paper like it will be screened, because it will. Your full paper is read by reviewers before anyone sees your face. Clear question, defined method, honest results, stated limitations. A modest, rigorous paper beats an inflated one at screening every time.
3. Treat the 90-second video as a scored asset. Most students record it the night before submission. It is often the first thing a screener watches. Ninety seconds: the problem, what you did, your key result, why it matters. No jargon in the first sentence.
4. Prepare for the interview like it is the competition, because at the National Fair, it is. Finalists present to working scientists who probe the same things ISEF judges probe: what did you personally do, what are the limitations, why this method, what comes next. If a mentor helped you, and good projects usually have mentors, you must be able to defend every decision as your own understanding.
The timeline that works
| When | What |
|---|---|
| Spring | Lock your research question |
| Summer | The research itself, the full twelve weeks of it |
| August | Registration opens, register early |
| September | Paper polished, synopsis written, video shot |
| By early October | Submit, days before the deadline, never hours |
| November onward | National Fair, then ISEF selection |
Count backwards from that and one thing becomes obvious: IRIS is won in the summer, not in September.
Where YRI fits
This is exactly the pipeline our India students run. YRI Fellows do original research 1-on-1 with full-time PhD mentors over 10 weeks, which happens to be the IRIS data window, finish with a real first-author paper, which happens to be the IRIS submission, and then we prepare the synopsis, video and interview against what screeners actually reward. 87% of our Fellows publish their research, and our students have gone on to IEEE, Springer and Elsevier venues and international competition results you can verify at yriscience.com/results.
If your student wants the ISEF path from India, the season starts months before the IRIS window opens. Rolling admissions, applications reviewed within 48 hours: yriscience.com.
Free download: The IRIS National Fair Guide
Our designed guide to building a winning IRIS project: eligibility, categories, screening, and what winning projects have in common.
Fair requirements summarized from IRIS National Fair's published materials for the 2026-27 cycle. Confirm current dates and rules at irisnationalfair.org before submitting.