Find a real problem
Participants begin with an observation from family life, memory or caregiving — a pattern that repeats, a symptom nobody explains, a behaviour nobody questions.
Youth Research Competition
From Family Experience
to Neuroscience
Start with a story your family tells. End with real science. This competition challenges young researchers to find problems worth solving — not to hand the thinking over to an algorithm.
- Registration closesOctober 25
- Entry formatIndividual or Team
- Judged byUS university professors
- SubmissionIMRAD research paper
The mission
Learn to ask, not to ask a model
Artificial intelligence can summarise, translate and draft. What it cannot do is notice something strange in your own family's experience and decide that it deserves an investigation. That instinct — spotting a real problem and designing a way to study it — is the skill this competition is built to reward.
Ground it in neuroscience
The question is then carried into the literature and re-framed as a testable, neuroscience-relevant research question with clear variables.
Defend your own work
Every entry is examined on originality, design quality, ethics and reasoning — and every participant pledges that the thinking is their own.
Entries that show genuine investigative effort — even with modest results — will outscore polished write-ups that show no independent thought.
The system
How the competition works
Five stages, one deadline per stage, and a published rubric — so every participant knows exactly what is being asked and how they will be scored.
Registration
Choose individual or team entry, complete the form, accept the ethics and no-AI pledge, and pay the entry fee.
Closes October 25Research phase
Run your investigation using the IMRAD structure. A research guide and mentor support are provided.
Date to be announcedSubmission
Upload your research paper or poster together with your raw notes and consent documentation.
Date to be announcedJudging
Independent review by professors from American universities, scored against the published rubric.
After submissionFinal & awards
Top-ranked entries present their work live before the judging panel. Winners announced the same day.
Date to be announcedJudging rubric
- Originality of the problem25%
- Quality of research design25%
- Ethics & data handling20%
- Reasoning & interpretation20%
- Clarity of presentation10%
Percentages are the proposed weighting — confirm before launch.
What you must submit
- Research paper in IMRAD structure (max 4,000 words)
- One-page poster summary
- Data collection log and consent record
- Signed ethics & no-AI declaration
- Reference list with verifiable sources
All submitted material must be in English.
Help centre
How to structure your research
Every strong paper answers the same five questions in the same order. This is the IMRAD structure, and it is the format your submission must follow. Open each step for a plain-language explanation and the mistakes to avoid.
Open with the observation from family experience, then narrow it into a single research question. Explain what is already known, cite at least three real sources, and state clearly what gap your study fills.
- Do: end the section with one sentence that starts "This study aims to…"
- Avoid: broad openings like "Neuroscience is a very important field."
Someone reading only this section should be able to repeat your study. State who you recruited, how many, how they were selected, what you measured, with what instrument, and over what period.
- Do: name your sampling method (convenience, snowball, purposive) and admit its limits.
- Avoid: describing results here — methods describe process only.
Present findings without interpretation. Use one table or figure for every claim worth making, number them, and refer to them in the text. Report what was surprising as honestly as what was expected.
- Do: state your sample size in every table caption.
- Avoid: explaining why a result happened — that belongs in the discussion.
Interpret your results against the literature, name at least three limitations, and finish with the next question you would study. A strong discussion is confident about its method and modest about its claims.
- Do: say what your finding does not prove.
- Avoid: claiming causation from a correlational design.
Practical toolkit
Sample size
For a school-level study, 30–60 participants is a defensible start. Justify your number.
Consent
Every participant signs or verbally confirms informed consent. Minors need guardian consent.
Note-keeping
Date every entry. Your raw log is a required part of the submission.
Bias control
Write your hypothesis down before you start collecting data.
Referencing
Use a consistent style. Every factual claim needs a source.
Asking for help
Mentors answer method questions. They do not write your paper.
Integrity
Ethics & the no-AI pledge
Both of the commitments below are accepted as part of registration. They are not decoration — breaching either one is grounds for disqualification after the fact.
Standards for data collection
- Informed consent before any data is collected
- Guardian consent for every participant under 18
- Anonymisation — no names, faces or identifying details in the paper
- No harm, distress or deception of participants
- Secure storage and deletion of raw data after judging
- Honest reporting — including results that contradict the hypothesis
The AI commitment
- The research question, design and interpretation are your own
- No generative AI used to write the submission
- No AI-generated data, citations or results
- AI may be used only for language polishing, and this must be declared
- Submission to a plagiarism and AI-provenance check
Why this matters: the entire point of the competition is to build the researcher, not the document. An entry that outsources its thinking has missed the objective it was entered for.
Evaluation
Judged by professors from American universities
Every eligible submission is scored independently by academics from United States universities, working from the same published rubric. Judging is blind: reviewers do not see participant names or institutions.
To be announced
Professor of Neuroscience
United States university
To be announced
Associate Professor, Cognitive Science
United States university
To be announced
Research Faculty, Neurobiology
United States university
To be announced
Professor of Psychology
United States university
Send me the panel names, titles and institutions and I will replace these placeholder cards.
Collaboration
Partners & collaborators
This competition is delivered jointly by the teams below. Mentor support, the research guide and participant onboarding are shared between them.
Learning Team
Research mentoring & curriculum
Runs the research guide, mentor sessions and participant onboarding for the IMRAD process.
Website / social linkMoushir Team
Project delivery & coordination
Coordinates operations, judging logistics and the final presentation event.
Website / social linkSend me each team's logo file and link and I will drop them straight into these cards.
Entry
Register for the competition
Four short steps. Your confirmation and registration ID are sent to the email you enter below. Entry is open to individuals and to teams.
- 1Format
- 2Details
- 3Pledge
- 4Payment
- 5Done
Questions
Frequently asked
Open to young researchers entering as individuals or in teams of two to five. The eligibility age range is still to be confirmed — tell me your intended range and I will publish it here.
No. The competition is designed for people who are curious and willing to be methodical. Mentors and the research guide support you through the whole process.
Using a generative model to write your text, generate or interpret your data, or produce references is not allowed. Using a spell-checker or a translation tool to polish your own writing is allowed and must be declared.
Yes — that is the spirit of the competition. But the same ethics rules apply: tell them what you are studying, get their consent, keep them anonymous in the write-up, and let anyone withdraw at any point.
Refund terms are set by the organisers and will be published alongside the fee. Send me the policy and it goes here.
You receive a confirmation email with a registration ID the moment the payment is confirmed. Keep that ID for all correspondence.