You have an idea, or not even that yet
The Partnership
A full season, question through competition
Four students a seasonThe 2026-2027 window closes 15 September 2026
The three of us. One project. A full season.
Everyone else in this field assigns you a mentor. You get the founders, people who stood at an ISEF booth last season and won, working your project from before the question is settled to the moment a judge stops at your board and a year of work comes down to how you answer. Our phone numbers, not a portal. When being in the room changes something, we fly.
The work, in order
- Pressure-testing the questions you bring, for feasibility and for what a year can actually answer
- Study design, technical learning, and troubleshooting when an experiment fails in February
- Which analysis your design calls for, what it can support, and what it cannot
- Critique of your figures, abstract, display, and submissions
- Competition selection and framing for each audience
- Mock judging, and competition-week preparation
- Travel to your competition when being there changes something
Where we stop
We do not generate your research question, write your research plan, abstract, paper, or poster, run your analysis, or produce your figures. You bring the draft; we tell you the truth about it.
You already have data
Competition Season
Twelve weeks, January through May
Nine students a seasonThe 2027 window closes 15 January 2027
You have the science. This decides what happens to it.
Good research loses every spring, and rarely because it was bad science. It loses to a figure nobody can read from six feet, a claim that overreaches by one word, an answer that sounds unsure in the second it matters. Twelve weeks turning finished work into work that survives a judge who is looking for a reason to move on.
The work, in order
- A full opening read of the work as it stands, and an honest position on how it will land
- Competition selection, and how the same study should be framed for each
- Review of your analysis and of what your data will and will not carry
- Critique of your figures and display against the six-foot standard
- Abstract review, against the rules as they are written this year
- Three mock judging rounds
- Competition-week preparation
Where we stop
Anything that changes the research itself. If the opening read finds the study needs redesigning, we will tell you that and decline the engagement rather than dress up work that will not hold.
Your project is finished
The Final Read
One adversarial read of a finished project
Twenty-four students a season, in two windowsNothing is sold inside seven days of your fair date
Everyone around you wants to tell you it is good. We do not.
Your teacher is proud of you. Your parents are invested. Your mentor signed off months ago. Send us the display and the abstract exactly as they stand, and you get back in writing the specific things a judge will catch, while there is still time to fix them.
The work, in order
- A close read of your display, abstract, and project summary as submitted
- A written critique: the figure a judge will squint at, the claim that overreaches by one word, the line that reads badly from six feet
- A live session to work through it, with the questions we expect you to be asked
- The written record of the engagement, for your paperwork
Where we stop
We do not open your files. Everything we return is a critique for you to act on, in your own words, in your own time.
The Final Read credits in full against either larger engagement in the same season. Travel and materials, where they arise, are billed at cost and approved in advance.
