Florida Regional Science Fairs 2026-27: Your Pathway to SSEF

Every student who competes at Florida’s State Science and Engineering Fair (SSEF) starts at a regional fair. There’s no application to the state fair and no shortcut. You qualify by being selected at the Regional Science and Engineering Fair (RSEF) that serves your school’s county, and the top projects from each region go on to Lakeland in spring.

That makes your regional fair the most important date on your science fair calendar, and the one families most often learn about too late. Registration and research approvals usually close weeks before the fair itself, sometimes before winter break.

To compete at the 72nd State Science and Engineering Fair of Florida (SSEF) on March 30 to April 1, 2027, a student must first be selected at a Regional Science and Engineering Fair (RSEF). Most Florida regionals run between late January and mid-February 2027. Students enter the fair that serves the county where they attend school. Only the top-ranked projects from each region move on to Lakeland, and the best senior projects can go on to the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Los Angeles in May 2027.

This guide covers the 2027 dates we’ve confirmed, which fair your student enters, the rules that get projects disqualified, a month-by-month timeline, and what comes after regionals. It’s written the way a research mentor would brief a student and parent at the start of the season.

Last updated: October 2026. Regional coordinators post dates throughout the fall, so check your fair’s website before you book anything.

What Is a Florida Regional Science and Engineering Fair (RSEF)?

A Florida RSEF is a county or multi-county science fair, affiliated with the Society for Science, that selects which students advance to the State Science and Engineering Fair of Florida. SSEF’s official list shows roughly three dozen active regional fairs covering all 67 Florida school districts. Each region sends only the number of projects it has been allocated.

Regionals matter for three reasons beyond qualifying:

They are usually a student’s first real judging experience with working scientists and engineers.
Judges’ feedback, even a critical comment, is often the most useful input a project gets before state.
They offer local special awards, such as the aerospace awards some Panhandle fairs receive from the Northwest Florida chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

A strong regional performance also builds the presentation habits that decide results at higher levels. If you want the full picture of SSEF categories, scoring, and project strategy, read our complete guide to the Florida SSEF.

How Do Students Qualify for SSEF in 2027?

Students qualify by completing an approved research project, entering the regional fair for their school’s location, and being selected as a finalist by that regional’s judges. There is no separate application to SSEF. A student must be chosen by an SSEF-affiliated regional fair.

Here is the sequence in practice:

Choose a research question and write a research plan.
Get any required Scientific Review Committee (SRC) or IRB approval before collecting data. This applies to human participants, vertebrate animals, hazardous materials, and several other categories.
Compete in your school or district fair if your region uses one.
Register for your regional fair by its deadline, usually in December or early January.
Present to judges. Many Florida regionals now use a mix of virtual and in-person judging.
If you’re named a finalist, submit the 72nd SSEF Abstract Form and any other state paperwork.

Eligibility for SSEF covers grades 6 to 12. ISEF eligibility is narrower: grades 9 to 12 only.

When Are Florida’s Regional Science Fairs in 2027?

Most Florida regional fairs fall between late January and mid-February 2027, and the last date any ISEF-affiliated fair can be held is April 12, 2027. Dates for several regions are already posted. The rest typically announce in the fall.

Confirmed 2027 dates so far:

Collier RSEF: Friday, February 5, 2027. Project drop-off is the afternoon of Thursday, February 4, and SRC/IRB pre-approval deadlines fall in early January.
Seminole County Regional Science, Math, and Engineering Fair: Saturday, February 13, 2027, at Lake Mary High School. The application deadline is 5:00 p.m. on December 18, 2026.
Hillsborough Regional STEM Fair: scheduled for 2027 at the Tampa Convention Center. Check the Tampa Bay STEM site for the exact date.

For every other region, the 2027 date is not yet confirmed. Last year’s dates are a guide only: Polk ran January 31, 2026, Capital ran February 13, 2026, and Northeast Florida ran February 8 to 11, 2026. Don’t plan around them. Some fairs shift by a week or more, and deadlines for registration and SRC approval often come weeks before the fair itself.

Which Regional Fair Does My Student Enter?

Students enter the regional fair that serves the county where they attend school, including students at public, private, charter, and homeschool programs. The SSEF Rules Supplement is explicit about this, and it also describes a process for requesting permission to compete in a different region. If you think you have a valid reason, ask for that permission early, before your project is far along.

If you’re unsure which fair covers your county, use the directory below or the Society for Science’s Find an Affiliated Fair tool.

Complete List of Florida Regional Science Fairs by Region (2027)

Florida has about three dozen active SSEF-affiliated regional fairs, listed below by area with the counties each one serves. This follows SSEF’s official Regional Fairs page, which includes a few fairs our previous version of this guide left out.

Panhandle and Big Bend Regional Fairs

West Panhandle RSEF: Escambia and Santa Rosa counties
East Panhandle RSEF: Okaloosa and Walton counties
Emerald Coast RSEF: Bay, Gulf, and Holmes counties
Capital RSEF: Gadsden, Leon, and Wakulla counties

North and Northeast Florida Regional Fairs

Suwannee Valley RSEF: Baker, Bradford, Columbia, Dixie, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Lafayette, Levy, Madison, Suwannee, and Union counties
Northeast Florida RSEF (NEFRSEF): Duval and Nassau counties
Clay RSEF: Clay County
St. Johns STEM Fair: St. Johns County
Alachua RSEF: Alachua County
Tomoka RSEF: Flagler and Volusia counties

Central Florida Regional Fairs

Big Springs RSEF: Marion and Sumter counties
Citrus RSEF: Citrus County
Hernando RSEF: Hernando County
Lake County RSEF: Lake County
Seminole County Regional Science, Math, and Engineering Fair: Seminole County
Dr. Nelson Ying Orange County Science Exposition (Ying Expo): Orange County
Osceola RSEF: Osceola County
Polk RSEF (PRSEF): Polk County
Heartland RSEF: DeSoto, Glades, Hardee, Hendry, Highlands, and Okeechobee counties
Brevard (Intracoastal, Mainland, and South): three separate fairs serving Brevard County

Tampa Bay and Southwest Florida Regional Fairs

Pasco Science and Engineering Showcase: Pasco County
Pinellas RSEF: Pinellas County
Hillsborough Regional STEM Fair: Hillsborough County
Manatee STEM Competition: Manatee County
Sarasota RSEF: Sarasota County
Thomas Alva Edison Fair: Charlotte and Lee counties
Collier RSEF: Collier County

Treasure Coast and Southeast Florida Regional Fairs

Indian River RSEF: Indian River County
St. Lucie RSEF: St. Lucie County
Martin RSEF: Martin County
Palm Beach RSEF: Palm Beach County
Broward RSEF: Broward County
South Florida (Miami-Dade STEM Expo): Miami-Dade County
Monroe RSEF: Monroe County (the Keys)

SSEF also lists the Chipola, Forgotten Coast, and Putnam fairs as inactive. If you live in one of those areas, confirm with your school district which neighboring fair serves your students. SSEF last updated its regional list in 2025, so verify your fair directly with the regional director.

What Happens at the State Science and Engineering Fair of Florida (SSEF) in 2027?

The 72nd SSEF will be held March 30, 31, and April 1, 2027, at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland, Florida. More than 900 finalists in grades 6 to 12 present their projects. The fair is run by the Florida Foundation for Future Scientists, and it awards roughly $1.2 million in prizes, scholarships, and internships.

Every project must be approved by the SSEF Scientific Review Committee before it can compete. All abstracts must use the 72nd SSEF Abstract Form, and projects follow both ISEF rules and the SSEF Rules Supplement, which can be stricter than ISEF’s. Read the supplement early, because the rules decide what experiments you can legally and ethically run.

The state fair is also where Florida’s ISEF delegation is chosen from the senior division. Florida has historically been among the largest state delegations at ISEF.

How Does a Florida Student Get to ISEF 2027?

A student reaches Regeneron ISEF by winning a spot through an affiliated fair, and for most Florida seniors-division students that means placing at SSEF. ISEF 2027 runs May 8 to 14 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. It is open only to students in grades 9 to 12.

Middle schoolers aren’t shut out. Grades 6 to 8 fall under the Thermo Fisher Junior Innovators Challenge (JIC), which uses the same affiliated-fair network. JIC dates for the 2027 cycle haven’t been posted yet.

Seniors may also consider the Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS), which is a paper-based competition separate from fair results. The 2027 entry deadline is November 5, 2026, so seniors who want to enter need to move now. If you’re comparing competitions, our competition pathways overview explains how each one works.

How Are Projects Judged at Florida Science Fairs?

Judges score the research itself: how strong the question is, how sound the method is, how carefully the data were collected and analyzed, and how clearly the student explains it. Florida fairs follow ISEF-style criteria, so the same habits carry from regionals to state to ISEF.

In practice, judges reward projects with these traits:

A real question that isn’t already answered by a textbook.
A design with controls, enough repetitions, and a plan for statistics.
A student who can explain every choice, including why they did not do something.
Honest limitations. Judges trust a student who names the weak points before being asked.

The mistake I see most often is a project that is really a demonstration. Building a working device or reproducing a known result is a fine start, but it won’t beat a modest question investigated rigorously.

What Paperwork and Rules Can Disqualify a Florida Science Fair Project?

The most common disqualifiers are starting experiments before required approval, missing ISEF forms, and ignoring the limits on human, animal, and hazardous-material research. Fixing these after the fact is rarely possible, so build them into your calendar.

Check your project against these first:

SRC/IRB approval comes before data collection. Collier’s calendar, for example, puts pre-approval deadlines in early January, and that’s typical.
Forms must match the project. Which ISEF forms you need depends on what the project involves.
Regional rules can be stricter than ISEF. Always read your fair’s own policies as well as the SSEF supplement.
Continuing projects need extra care. Year-over-year work has its own documentation requirements.

Our complete ISEF paperwork checklist walks through each form and when it applies. Use it before the project starts, not after.

What Is the Timeline for Preparing for a Florida Regional Science Fair?

Work backward from your regional fair date: finalize your question by November, secure approvals by early January, and spend the last four weeks on data analysis and presentation practice. The 2027 season is already underway, so the next two months matter most.

October to November 2026: Lock the Question and the Plan

Choose a question you can answer with data you can actually collect, in a setting you have access to. Write the research plan and identify whether you need SRC or IRB approval. If your project depends on a lab or a mentor, secure that now. Cold outreach to labs is slow, and our honest look at cold-emailing university labs explains why you should start early and expect low response rates.

December 2026: Register and Submit Approvals

Many regionals close registration in December. Seminole’s deadline is December 18, for example. Submit SRC paperwork as soon as the plan is final. This is also the point to finish experiments that need long lead times, such as bacterial growth, plant cycles, or repeated field measurements.

January 2027: Finish Data Collection and Start Analysis

Regional fairs begin in late January, and some require files or virtual boards to be uploaded before judging. Finish data collection early enough to run proper statistics and make at least one round of revisions. A project with clean analysis and a smaller dataset beats a large dataset analyzed in a rush.

February 2027: Present at Your Regional Fair

Practice a two-minute summary and a ten-minute walkthrough, then practice answering questions you hope nobody asks. Bring a logbook. Judges notice when a student can point to the exact page where a decision was recorded.

March 30 to April 1, 2027: SSEF in Lakeland

Finalists must have all SSEF forms in order and be ready for SRC review at the fair. Treat judges’ regional feedback as a punch list and fix the weaknesses before state.

May 8 to 14, 2027: ISEF in Los Angeles

Senior-division students who earn a spot present internationally. Finalists also have deadlines for questionnaires and virtual booths after they’re named, so keep an eye on your email.

What Kinds of Projects Win at Florida Science Fairs?

Winning projects pair a genuinely open question with a measurable outcome and a design that fits the student’s real lab access and safety level. Fields that give high schoolers the most workable data include microbiology, materials science, medical physics, and aerospace. Our topic guides cover what to choose and what to avoid in each:

Aerospace deserves a warning. It is popular and easy to get wrong, because regulatory, safety, and testing limits can shut a project down late. If you’re unsure whether a topic is feasible, ask someone experienced before you commit.

Do Students Need a Mentor to Succeed at Florida Science Fairs?

A mentor isn’t required, but students with expert guidance tend to scope better, avoid approval problems, and present with more confidence. The real barrier for many Florida families is access. School science programs vary widely, and lab access, statistics support, and SRC guidance aren’t evenly available.

A research mentor helps with three things in particular: narrowing a question to something answerable, choosing a design a judge will respect, and preparing for tough questions. At Future Forward Labs, PhD mentors work with middle and high school students on exactly these steps, from topic selection through regional, state, and ISEF preparation.

If you’re weighing different kinds of research support, our guide to choosing a STEM research program gives parents a framework. Students who want to look further ahead can read the RSI acceptance rate guide to see what selective summer programs look for. If working in a university lab is on your list, our post on the pros and cons of a university lab as a high schooler sets realistic expectations.

Frequently Asked Questions About Florida Regional Science Fairs

When is the Florida State Science and Engineering Fair in 2027?

The 72nd SSEF will be held March 30, 31, and April 1, 2027, at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland, Florida.

How many regional science fairs does Florida have?

Florida has roughly three dozen active SSEF-affiliated regional fairs covering all 67 school districts. SSEF also lists a few inactive fairs, so confirm which region serves your county.

Can homeschool and private school students enter Florida regional science fairs?

Yes. Public, private, charter, and homeschool students all compete in the regional fair that serves their geographic area.

What grades can compete at the Florida State Science and Engineering Fair?

SSEF is open to students in grades 6 to 12. ISEF is limited to grades 9 to 12, and middle schoolers can pursue the Thermo Fisher Junior Innovators Challenge instead.

Do I need approval before starting my science fair project?

Often, yes. Projects involving human participants, vertebrate animals, hazardous substances, or certain biological materials need SRC or IRB approval before any data is collected. Check your fair’s deadlines, because they usually fall in early January.

How many students from each region go to SSEF?

It varies. Each regional fair sends the number of projects it has been allocated. Collier, for instance, sends its top 16 students.

What is the deadline to enter a Florida regional science fair?

Each fair sets its own, and many close registration in December or early January. Seminole County’s 2027 deadline is December 18, 2026.

How do Florida students get to ISEF?

Senior-division students earn a place through an affiliated fair, most often by placing at SSEF. ISEF 2027 takes place May 8 to 14 in Los Angeles.

Next Steps: Build Your 2027 Plan Now

Start with three actions this week: confirm which regional fair serves your school, put its registration and SRC deadlines on your calendar, and finalize a research question you can answer with real data. If you want an experienced mentor to pressure-test your plan before the season gets busy, book a briefing session with our enrollment team. For the wider field beyond Florida, see the top 30 STEM competitions for students in 2026. Families in other states can read about Delaware Valley Science Fair (DVSF) eligibility and deadlines and our North Carolina Science and Engineering Fair (NCSEF) guide.