RIYADH: A prestigious national Olympiad aimed at identifying the next generation of Saudi scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs on Wednesday kicked off in Riyadh.

A total of 151 male and female students will compete in the National Olympiad for Scientific Creativity (Ibdaa 2020), organized by the King Abdul Aziz and his Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity (Mawhiba) in collaboration with the Saudi Ministry of Education.

The winning 27 contestants will be revealed at a closing ceremony to be held on Saturday under the patronage of Riyadh Gov. Prince Faisal bin Bandar.

Students participating in the competition have already completed their projects at King Saud University in line with the scientific ethical regulations adopted by a jury of eight members, and judging will take place on Thursday and Friday.

The Olympiad entrants will be presenting their research in 21 different scientific fields and a committee of 31 academic experts will pick the winning projects to go through to represent the Kingdom at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF 2020) being staged in the US in May.

Those chosen to compete at the ISEF gathering in California will be up against 2,000 students representing 90 countries.

Through the Ibdaa competition, the Mawhiba and Ministry of Education partnership aims to identify and develop young Saudi talent. 

More than 75,000 students from throughout the Kingdom applied to take part in the contest which involves thousands of educational supervisors, ministry officials, and scientific experts in supporting students with their research projects.