Mawhiba celebrates the champions of ISEF 2026: Innovations that embody the efficiency of Saudi minds
The celebration, which was attended by the Secretary-General of Mawhiba, Abdulaziz Al-Kridis, witnessed the screening of two short films that documented the journey of the Saudi national team’s participation in the exhibition, and the accompanying stages of preparation, qualification and competition, in addition to speeches delivered on this occasion, and honoring the national team students, members of the delegation and a number of partners in success, in appreciation of their roles in supporting this national achievement.
Saudi National Science and Engineering Team
The Saudi national science and engineering team participated inISEF 2026, the world's largest pre-university science and engineering competition, with 40 students. Twenty-three students represented the Kingdom in person in Phoenix, while 17 participated remotely from Riyadh. Two middle school students also served as observers, as part of the arrangements for this year's competition.
The Saudi team won 24 international awards, including 12 major awards and 12 special awards. They achieved first place globally in computational biology and informatics, maintaining the Kingdom's second-place ranking globally after the United States for the third consecutive year. This achievement further solidifies the Kingdom's leading position in international scientific competitions.
Talented people in the Kingdom
Mawhiba affirmed that this achievement reflects the support, care, and attention given to gifted individuals in the Kingdom by the wise leadership – may God protect them – and the high-quality programs provided by the National System for Giftedness and Creativity to discover, nurture, and empower students to compete globally, in strategic partnership with the Ministry of Education and a number of national partners.
The foundation commended the students for their advanced research and innovation projects, which demonstrated the competence of Saudi minds and their ability to compete in precise scientific fields. It emphasized that the achievement at ISEF 2026 represents the culmination of a long journey that began with the National Olympiad for Scientific Creativity (Ibdaa), through training, qualification, judging, and development phases, and ultimately led to representing the Kingdom at the world's largest scientific event.
ISEF Exhibition
This achievement is the latest in a series of successes for the Kingdom at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), in which it has participated annually since 2007. This participation is facilitated through an integrated partnership between Mawhiba and the Ministry of Education, which has contributed to building a generation of gifted students capable of representing the nation with competence and distinction in major international scientific competitions.
It is worth noting that Mawhiba is a leading global institution in the field of discovering, nurturing, and empowering gifted individuals. It works to adopt a national strategy for discovering and developing talent in scientific fields of national priority, contributing to building a knowledge-based society and fostering a culture of innovation.
