*Click image to enlarge

*Click image to enlarge

• Junior and Senior Division
  • (Type A) Invention and (Type B) Investigation Projects
  • Champions, 1st Runner-ups, 2nd Runner-ups, Honorable Mentions
  • Best Potential Award
  • (Type C) Invention and (Type D) Investigation Design Proposals
  • First Prizes and Second Prizes
  • Other Awards
  • Best Newcomer Award
  • Sustainable Development Award
  • Social Innovation Award
  • Annual Theme Award
  • Visitors' Favourite Award
• Scientific Wallchart Division
  • First Prizes, Second Prizes, and Annual Theme Award

• Winning teams of Junior and Senior Division (Type A & B) may be sponsored to participate in overseas exchange programme.
• Winning teams Junior and Senior Division (Type A & B) may be sponsored to participate in a Science and Technology Exchange Programme.
• Book coupons will be given to winning teams of all divisions as award.

*All awards are subject to change according to no. of participating teams and the overall performance. In case of any disputes, the organisers reserve the right of final decision.

1. All participants MUST be nominated by schools (Hong Kong registered whole day secondary schools) and each team should have one supervising teacher. The supervising teacher should create an account at the competition enrollment system and enroll for teams from all divisions by the nomination deadline.
2. A science project that submitted to other competitions or exhibitions in previous school years but not awarded will be accepted. Projects submit to other competitions or exhibitions in the 2024/25 school year will also be accepted. The details should be clearly listed in the enrollment form. If a participant has sought advice / assistance from any person, including his / her supervising teacher and assigned advisor, acknowledgement should be given to them in the enrollment form and report / proposal.
3. The projects submitted must be original work by the teams and should NOT infringe on the copyright of any third parties. Students must conduct literature research thoroughly to ensure that their works are unique, and to list relevant reference materials to complement the research or invention. All sources of information quoted must be explicitly acknowledged. All participants should strictly comply with the “Copyright Ordinance”. All materials used in the project, including pictures and music if any must be original, royalty-free or authorized by the originator(s). Otherwise, the team will be disqualified. The organisers accept no legal responsibility whatsoever in respect of any copyright issues.
4. All participants must send at least ONE representative to attend the “Literature Review and Rare Diseases Introduction Seminar” to deepen the team's understanding of literature search and exploration, its importance, and to recognise the social needs related to the annual theme.
5. All participants must send at least ONE representative to participate and get a PASS in Protection of Intellectual Property Online Assessment to understand the importance of protecting intellectual property and to avoid violating relevant laws.
6. All teams utilizing Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) assistance during the competition (including but not limited to data collection, report/project proposal writing, article organisation, and image creation) must follow the Annex 2: [Rules for the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)] .
7. The judging process might be video recorded or live-streamed for educational and non-commercial purposes, the videos might be edited, transferred, duplicated, and uploaded to the HKSSPC website or other social media platforms.
8. The copyrights of the photos and videos of all activities, and science projects are deemed the properties of the organisers and the teams jointly. Once the enrollment form is submitted, means that the teams agreed that the organisers have the rights to edit, delete, duplicate, file, transfer, issue or display the photos and videos of all activities, and science projects for educational or other non-commercial purposes.
9. Score sheets will not be distributed to teams. All decisions made by the Judging Panel shall be final, teams shall not object. The organisers reserve the right to forfeit the award(s) from the winning team(s) and transfer the award(s) to other suitable teams if the winning team(s) is / are disqualified for any reason at the discretion of the organisers, including breach of and / or non-compliance with the Rules and Regulations.
10. Each team from Junior and Senior division could apply for the HKD500 subsidy for project development. (The subsidy could only be used for materials of project research and exhibition booth decoration.); Each team from Scientific Wallchart Division could apply for the HKD100 subsidy for poster production. (The subsidy could only be used for producing the poster).
11. Teams participating in the Invention and Investigation (Type A and B) are not allowed to switch their participation type to the Design Proposal (Type C and D) after successful enrollment.
12. Teams participating in the Design Proposal (Type C and D) are not allowed to showcase any experimental data or models of their work in the project proposal or during the Judging Period. If a team does not meet the eligibility criteria upon submitting the project proposal, the organisers reserve the right to change their Project Type (to Type A or B) or the team would be disqualified.
13. Projects are only eligible to compete for the “Sustainable Development Award”, the “Social Innovation Award”, and the “Annual Theme Award” when they indicate it at the stage of project submission. Teams competing for the former award need to describe the specific sustainable development goal their projects related to when they submit their projects, and that for the latter award should clearly indicate the target group and social issues it addresses on.
14. “Sustainable Development Award” and “Social Innovation Award” Judging Arrangement
    • The extended abstracts of the projects which compete for Sustainable Development Award and Social Innovation Award will be paper vetted and 10 teams will be shortlisted from each division (Junior and Senior) to have face-to-face judging during Initial Judging
15. All experiments must be performed under the supervision of team supervising teacher and strictly following the safety guidelines from Education Bureau. For more details, please refer to: http://cd1.edb.hkedcity.net/cd/science/laboratory/safety/SafetyHandbook2013_English.pdf
16. For Junior and Senior division, members must attend the Initial Judging and complete the judging process in order to receive a Certificate of Participation.
17. For Junior and Senior division, members must attend the Initial Judging Day and present their project to the judges and answer questions in person; online tools or recorded video presentations cannot be used as substitutes.
18. For Junior and Senior division, supervising teacher or one accompanying teacher must accompany the team to the Initial Judging Day and the Final Judging Day (if they are selected to the final), but the teacher cannot assist the team in presenting their project or answering questions during the judging period.

Research Tools:

Hong Kong Public Libraries' e-databases

Google Scholar

Microsoft Academic

Online Collaborative Platforms:

Google Drive

Miro Online Whiteboard

Lucidchart

Enrollment

How many teachers accounts each school could register?

There is no limit for the teachers account. However, each school could only nominate up to 8 teams for the Junior and Senior Division and up to 5 students for the Scientific Wallchart Division.

Can I use the registered teachers accounts in 2024 for HKSSPC 2025 team registration?

Yes, you can use the same teachers accounts for HKSSPC 2025 team registration.

What could I do if I didn’t receive the activation email for an account registration?

1. Please try to check the junk / spam mail to see if you receive the email

2. Please try to register with another email, or a gmail address

3. Please contact the secretariat if the above actions cannot help

How do I know if my enrollment is successful?

Creating an account successfully in the enrollment system doesn’t mean that you have enrolled in the competition, please make sure you log in to the system and click “ENROLL” for the competition enrollment. There will be an enrollment status shown on the home page for each team under your account. The status will be updates when the enrollment deadline is passed.

What should I do if I want to make changes for my enrollment?

Before the enrollment deadline, you can make changes to the information provided in the enrollment platform any time.

After the enrollment deadline, you will not be able to add teams, change the project type or category. However, you can submit a written request to the secretariat for changes with a valid reason. The secretariat will consider the request on a case-by-case basis.

Once the submission deadline for the projects has passed, no further modifications can be made. The secretariat will only consider changes requested in writing by the supervising teacher.

Division

Can the I join the Junior and Senior Divisions alone?

No, students could only join these divisions by forming a team with 2-5 team members.

Could Junior Form students (F.1-3) join the Senior Division and Senior Form Student (F.4-6) join the Junior Division?

Junior Form students could form team with Senior Form students for the Senior Division, while all team members in the Junior Division must be F.1 to 3 students and aged under 17 years old.

Project Type

What is the difference between Invention (Type A project) and Investigation (Type B project)?

Invention (Type A project): A new and original invention created by students with scientific knowledge and imagination OR a new idea to enhance existing products / technology with distinctive enhancement. Students are required to demonstrate how their invention works and its application. Invention project should have physical products and models to show in front of the judges.

Investigation (Type B project): This should be a research on scientific phenomena or the application of scientific theories. The project has to be submitted in the form of a report supported by experimental data and results.

For more details please refer to previous winning projects.

Projects

Does my project necessary to be related to the sub-theme “Sustainable Development”?

It is optional for teams in the Junior and Senior Division to develop their projects in relation to “Sustainable Development”. But for Scientific Wallchart Division, students are required to produce and submit an A1 poster with topic related to “Sustainable Development”.

Could I submit project that get awards from other competitions?

Projects submitted to other competitions or exhibitions before 2023/24 school year but not awarded, or in the current 2023/24 school year will be accepted.

If my team couldn’t conduct experiments or produce an actual prototype under COVID-19 for project submission, what should I do?

You may consider submitting your project in the “Design Proposal Project Type”. Please refer to the extended abstract template and judging criteria for more details on the requirement.

Can our team submit project in the Design Proposal Project Type if we have experimental data or invention prototype for the project?

No, you cannot compete in the Design Proposal Project Type if there is experimental data/ an actual model for the project.

Trainings and Visits

Is it compulsory to join all the workshops and technical visits?

Most of the workshops and visits are optional for teams to enroll and participate, and the places are allocated in first come first serve basis. However, all teams must participate the Literature Review and Intellectual Property Online Assessment.

Will Scientific Wallchart Division winning students be nominated to overseas exchange programme?

Only winning teams from the Junior and Senior Division (Type A & B) may be nominated to overseas exchange programme.

Others

Does Scientific Wallchart Division participants required to attend the Initial Judging Day?

Scientific Wallchart Division Participants only be required to submit a soft copy and hard copy poster by the deadline. Participants do not required to attend the Initial Judging Day, and the posters will be exhibited to the public on Final Judging Day. Award will be presented on the award presentation ceremony

Will there be electricity provision at the booth for Initial Judging?

Yes, sockets will be provided to teams at their exhibition booths on Initial Judging for the demonstration of the project. Prior request of electricity is required. On-site registration and the use of the charging area at the competition venue is required for charging electronic devices, such as computers, tablets and phones, etc,

Will there be display board provision at the booth for Initial Judging?

Organiser will not provide any display boards or walls for teams to pin/attach posters. All teams must bring their own freestanding display board to the judging venue and put on the tables provided by the organiser to showcase the research data, photos, or experiment results, etc.

Will the project material subsidy cover the cost of research paper subscription?

Yes. The total subsidy for teams in Junior*Type A& B and Senior Division are HKD500 and for students who participate in Scientific Wallchart are HKD100.