Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge is for students in grades 6-8. It is known as the junior high school version of ISEF. It is very valuable and attracts many American junior high school students to participate every year. The application deadline for the new 2024 season is June 14.
What exactly is JIC? How is the schedule arranged this year? What are the subject categories? How are the awards set? What are the benefits of participating in JIC? This article will take you to a deeper understanding!

What is Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge?

JIC was originally named Broadcom MASTERS. Since 2010, it has been operating continuously with the generous support of the title sponsor and partner Broadcom Foundation and Society for Science.
Starting in 2023, Thermo Fisher Scientific, a global leader in scientific services, will become the new title sponsor of the association's middle school competition and use a new competition name - Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge!
The title sponsor of ISEF has also changed in the past two years, from Intel to the current Regeneron. The change of the title sponsor will not significantly affect the specifications of the event, so there is no need to worry too much about this.
Like ISEF, Thermo Fisher Scientific cannot participate directly. Students need to stand out from the regional competition to get a ticket to the competition. Thermo Fisher Scientific is a science competition for middle school students, targeting students in grades 6-8 in the United States. Students ranked in the top 10% in the region will be eligible to apply for the national competition.
In 2023, a total of 1,828 students from 49 states in the United States, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and other places successfully entered the JIC finals.

• Eligibility

Between November 1, 2023 and June 1, 2024, students who have participated in the regional affiliated competitions of the Thermo Fisher JIC-affiliate science fair are eligible to apply for the national competition.

Applicants must be students in grades 6-8 and have participated in affiliated exhibitions in the United States or within the United States. Each person can only submit one entry and can participate alone or in a team of ≤3 people.

All applied research must comply with the guidelines established by the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge affiliated exhibition, as well as all local, state and national laws and regulations in the United States.

Additional requirements for team participation:
However, each student in the team project needs to submit an application independently, handle application issues, and clearly describe the part they are responsible for and their understanding of the project in the application form. The descriptions between teammates will be similar, but they must be written independently. Except for the abstract, no papers and written responses can be exactly the same.
Team projects do not require everyone to participate, and individual entries are accepted. During the national competition review process, the group will not be considered as a whole, and only some of its members may be rated as Top300 or Finalist finalists.

• Subject classification

Science, technology, engineering, mathematics.

Junior Innovators Challenge 2024 application process

February 1-June 14：Application open
September 4：Top 300 announced
September 18：Top 30 announced
October：Finals Week & Project Showcase

Awards in the Thermo Fisher JIC

Grand Prize of the Finals
$25,000 ASCEND Award (highest award)
$10,000 Broadcom Coding with Commitment Award
$10,000 DoD STEM Talent Award
$10,000 Lemelson Invention Award
$10,000 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Promotion Award
Subject Awards
First place in each category of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics will receive a prize of $3,500, and second place will receive a prize of $2,500. *Last year, all winners also received an iPad

Benefits of participating in the Junior Innovators Challenge

Thermo Fisher Scientific Youth Innovators Challenge encourages students to complete research outside the traditional laboratory environment and find interests and inspiration from life. Similar to ISEF, JIC focuses more on innovation, social value, and enlightenment of students' scientific research interests than on the complexity of research.
Junior high school students who have participated in this competition can often find their interests earlier and lock in their future development direction. During the competition, students will be more familiar with the standards and procedures of similar scientific research competitions, and they will have a greater chance of achieving success in the ISEF arena!

How to apply for the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge

The application deadline for the new 2024 JIC season is mid-June. In order to help participants complete the application efficiently and smoothly, JIC officials recently released 5 tips to simplify the application process

Get Password

After being nominated by JIC officials, participants will soon receive a digital nomination package, which contains all the information about the competition and the login password for the application page. If this information is missing, participants should contact JIC officials by email (jic@societyforscience.org), and the email must provide name, city/state, and the name of the exhibition to be participated in.

Actively participate in discussions and answer questions boldly

Since there is too much information to fill in on the application page, contestants can first selectively complete Part 1 (Registration), Part 2 (Student Experience) and Part 5 (Personal Interests). These three parts mainly involve basic information, school experience and extracurricular activities. After filling in these, it is equivalent to completing half of the task! It doesn’t matter if there are other things to deal with in the middle. You can exit the page at any time and continue filling in from the last interruption.
Part 3 is like a judge interview. The content to be filled in is relatively difficult. You can discuss the corresponding questions before answering, so that contestants can prepare for the application more calmly and ensure that each content is well thought out and carefully prepared.

Watch the drill video on the JIC YouTube page

If contestants don’t know how to answer the questions on the application page, they can log in to the JIC YouTube page and the "Resources" page of the application to watch the drill video! The video details each task in the application. Making good use of video resources can help you complete the application quickly. In addition, JIC officials will hold webinars throughout the Spring Festival. Please pay attention to relevant developments on the application page in a timely manner!

Prepare safety documents

JIC officials require all participants to have basic scientific research qualities and safety awareness. If necessary, upload safety documents provided by the local science fair, which will not only help the reviewers understand your research content and methods, but also ensure that the research is conducted in a safe and controlled environment. If you cannot provide safety documents, you can ask the teacher or science fair director to write a letter to prove that the research project is conducted under their safety guidance.

Submit your application as early as possible

It is recommended that all participants nominated by JIC submit their applications as early as possible before the deadline! Only in this way can participants have sufficient time to review their submitted research projects, and teachers or parents can help participants find potential problems in the application materials with their rich experience and expertise, and provide valuable suggestions. After submitting the application, participants can make unlimited revisions before the deadline. Don't forget to save each revision!
All nominees who submit applications will receive a T-shirt and have the opportunity to win other cool prizes such as swag bags and Kindles. Act quickly!
If you are interested in the Thermo Fisher Scientific Young Innovator Challenge, you can consult Embark for more information on the competition.