The European Union Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS) 2026, held in Kiel from 22 to 27 September, brought together 146 young scientists from 37 countries, presenting 96 projects. Italy was represented by five students and three projects, selected by FAST through the national competition “I giovani e le scienze” (“Young People and Science”). The Italian delegation returned home with four significant awards.
Top prize and a ticket to Los Angeles. Tommaso Vaninetti, Frida Tirari and Abdoellah El Makkaoui, students at the Aeronautic High School “Locatelli” in Bergamo, received one of the four first prizes awarded by the European Commission, worth €7,000. In addition, they were selected to represent Europe at the Regeneron ISEF in Los Angeles next May. Their engineering project, IPlantLeaf, investigates the ability of plants to communicate.
AI against paediatric leukaemia. Jacopo Martelli, from the National Boarding School “Vittorio Emanuele II” in Rome, won a medical internship at the CNIC in Madrid for his project Luxemia — an artificial intelligence system designed to predict relapses in acute paediatric leukaemias. Trained on more than 10,000 clinical records, the system achieved an AUC of 0.787 for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and 0.699 for myeloid leukaemia, outperforming the clinical benchmark of the project. An external validation is currently under way in hospitals in Germany, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
Radioactivity research recognised. Nicola Trucco, a student at the German School of Genoa, won an EUROforum prize for his research on variations in radioactivity and on radon. The award includes a week of study at the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble.
Looking ahead to Genoa 2027. FAST, the Italian National Organizer since 1989, selects the national projects each year and runs “I giovani e le scienze” on behalf of the Directorate-General for Research of the European Commission. EUCYS is an initiative of the European institutions aimed at young people aged 14 to 20, offering cash prizes, internships, visits to research centres and participation in international events, including Regeneron ISEF.
The next European final will be held in Genoa in 2027. Registration for the Italian competition “I giovani e le scienze 2027” is open until 15 January, with the exhibition and award ceremony taking place from 13 to 15 March.
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