Commission announces the winners of #EUContestForYoungScientists

The winners of the EU Contest for Young Scientists were announced on 17 September during the 31st edition of the competition that is being held in Sofia, Bulgaria.

This year the top prizes were awarded to Adam Kelly from Ireland for the project “Optimised Simulation of General Quantum Circuits”, Magnus Quaade Oddershede from Denmark for “The wingtip's influence on the efficiency of airplane wings”, Alex Korocencev and Felix Christian Sewing from Germany for “Hoverboard - a Magnetically Levitated Vehicle”, and Leo Li Takemaru and Poojan Pandya from the USA for “Investigating the Role of the Novel ESCRT-III Recruiter CCDC11 in HIV Budding: Identifying a Potential Target for Antiviral Therapy”.

The winners will receive €7000 for each of the four outstanding projects. Carlos Moedas, Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, said: "I warmly congratulate the winners of this year's contest on their outstanding achievement. I am convinced that we will see many of the 154 participants hitting the headlines in the coming years with breakthrough discoveries and innovations. We need all the bright minds in Europe to make positive and impactful change!”

The EU Contest for Young Scientists, which was set up by the European Commission in 1989, aims at giving students the opportunity to compete with the best of their contemporaries at European level, meet others with similar abilities and interests and get guidance from some of the most prominent scientists in Europe. It also complements and supports national efforts to attract young people to study science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), and to eventually pursue careers in science and research. The number of participating young scientists has risen from 53 in the first competition in 1989 to an average of 150 a year. More information about the prize itself and the other winners is available here.

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