HSHRF Competitions
The High School Health Research Challenge (HSHRC) is an HSHRF original competition open to high school students of all nationalities, focusing on the creativity and feasibility of coming up with potential solutions to relevant societal health issues. The submissions are judged by the HSHRF judging panel, consisting of PhD/MD professionals, scientific journal editors, and university/medical institution affiliates. The Pioneer in Health Research Award™ recipient will receive a $500 scholarship, and finalists and semifinalists will be announced on the platform.
Eligibility: The competition is only open to full-time high school students (grades 9-12) attending a public school, private school, or home school at the time of application.
U.S. citizenship is not required
International students may submit
Students living outside of the U.S. are eligible to submit
HSHRF is currently not accepting submissions. The 2026 competition season is forthcoming.
2025 High School Health Research Challenge
The HSHRF competition received hundreds of submissions worldwide, sharply identified significant or pressing health challenges facing society today, and passionately proposed creative and feasible solutions that teenagers could potentially develop or implement to address or mitigate the issues. After a rigorous review by the education team and our panel of judges, six semifinalists were selected, followed by five finalist projects showcasing the most innovative and feasible health solutions proposed by teenagers. The judging panel included Dr. Immaculata De Vivo, Editor-in-Chief of Cancer Causes & Control and Professor of Science at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Dr. Sebastien Thuault, Editor-in-Chief of Nature Aging; and Dr. Margaret Du, Associate Attending at Memorial Sloan Kettering and Professor at Weill Cornell Medicine.
2025 Recognitions