Science on Stage Festival 2026

The 14th European Science on Stage festival will take place in 2026 in one of our member countries.

450 primary and secondary school teachers from all over Europe will come together to share their most creative and innovative STEM ideas at stands, in workshops, and in highlight sessions. Participants will be selected via competitive national events in 2025 in over 30 countries. Once the dates for these national events are known, you will find them here.

Guiding Themes

All projects represent inquiry-based learning approaches.

STEM for the Youngest: Projects promoting STEM in primary schools for children aged 10 and under
STEM Education for Sustainable Development: Projects that contribute to the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals
AI in STEM Education: Projects that demonstrate ways to integrate AI into the classroom and promote understanding of AI
Career Orientation in STEM Education: Projects that demonstrate good practice in integrating career orientation into regular STEM education
Equity and Inclusion in STEM Education: Projects that reflect the heterogeneity and diversity of our society, e.g. teaching methods that engage students with different learning levels or different cultural backgrounds
Self-directed Learning in STEM Education: Projects that demonstrate approaches where the teacher acts as a facilitator, e.g. in a digital learning environment, or that can be useful in addressing teacher shortages
Low-Cost Experiments in STEM Education: Projects that can be implemented at low-cost

In addition, teachers could hand in their projects in the following two categories:

Joint Projects: Projects developed collaboratively by teachers, at least one of whom has participated in Science on Stage activity.
STEM for Teachers in Training: Projects developed during pre-service teacher training or student teacher placements

The guiding themes structured the fair.

A glimpse into a festival

Would you like to know what to expect at a festival? Here you can get a sneak peek:

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Read about the last festival in Turku here

Programme

Fair: The fair is the main element of the festival, where all the participants show their projects and experiments at stands
Workshops: Workshops are interactive hands-on sessions from teachers for teachers
Highlight Sessions: At the highlight sessions, selected participants present their ideas on stage
Forum: Exhibitions made by partners, e. g. companies, organisations, foundations
Social Events: Throughout the festival there are networking activities, excursions, evening receptions

Application criteria and jury

The teachers taking part in our festival were selected by the National Steering Committee in their country. Those teachers presented their projects in a stand at the fair.

An ideal Science on Stage project:

is from teachers for teachers,
promotes inquiry-based learning,
has a high relevance to everyday life
is easy to implement in everyday school life and can be financed with reasonable means
promotes education for sustainable development (ESD)