The International Biology Olympiad

organizes the world's premier biology competition for secondary school students.

The IBO competition challenges and stimulates high school biology students to expand their talents and to promote their future careers as scientists. Its 
aim is to identify, inspire, empower, and support the next generation of leaders in the life sciences and to develop their international network.

Passion

The IBO aims to teach young biologists to value curiosity and develop their interest in life sciences.

Coorperation

The IBO aims to shape an international network of biology talents and future life science leaders.

Excellence

The IBO aims to identify highly gifted biology students and to stimulate their talents further.

Interculturalism

The IBO aims to encourage cross-cultural dialogue by bringing together biology students from around the world.

Education

The IBO aims to set new standards in the education and assessment of highly gifted biology students.

Future IBO Schedule

IBO Participation

The International Biology Olympiad takes place in a different country every year during June. It normally lasts one week. The exact dates and locations of future IBO competitions can be found here.

To participate in the IBO students need to win their respective National Biology Olympiad and be selected to represent their country internationally. To find out more about preparation for International Biology Olympiads click here.

IBO Results & Reports

The IBO competition consists of practical and theoretical tests. The host country of the IBO event provides the raw scores of participating students to the international Jury. 

 After approval of the student’s raw scores by the Country Coordinators, the host country calculates the final ranking based on the T-scores for the practical and theoretical tests (50% + 50%). 

 The final ranking determines the number of gold, silver, and bronze medals, as well as certificates of merit  in accordance with the IBO Operational Guidelines.