International Academic Competitions, the parent organization of the International Environmental Science Olympiad, is looking forward to the next IESO with some changes in mind. First, while the inaugural IESO was held in late December 2024, subsequent IESOs will most likely be held in the summer, when there is a bit more flexibility with time for most families. Next, the next IESO will most likely be held in Central America or Europe, though an exact determination on the host country and venue is likely a ways off. Moreover, the High Division of IESO is likely to be split into Varsity and Junior Varsity Divisions on the basis of a birth date cutoff. Varsity Division students will be limited to 4 or 5 to a country or territory, in alignment with other international science olympiads. However, the Junior Varsity, Middle School, and Elementary School Divisions (likely with an added Intermediate Division for 5th and 6th graders / 10-12 year olds) will continue to work on the same basis as IESO 2024 did, with a much more open qualifying process.
Further details will be forthcoming in the coming months and years, though with the need to recruit national teams, it will likely be 2-4 years before IESO returns. Therefore, students and families should expect that the next IESO will most likely take place in Summer 2027, Summer 2028, or Summer 2029. However, International Academic Competitions will be debuting the International Science Championships as an additional summer competition opportunity in the summer prior to the next IESO, so science-minded students and families won’t need to wait quite so long for another chance to compete in a science-themed event at a global level.
For further questions on IESO, please email david@iacompetitions.com for quickest response, though we will continue to monitor the ieso@iacompetitions.com email account as well.