Neuroscience Olympics

The Neuroscience Olympiad forms part of the annual programme for the promotion of excellence run by the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR) (Ministerial Decree No. 541 of 18 June 2019).
The Neuroscience Olympiad serves as the Italian selection round for the International Brain Bee (IBB, https://thebrainbee.org/), an international competition that tests secondary school pupils, aged between 13 and 19, on their knowledge of neuroscience. Pupils tackle topics such as: intelligence, memory, emotions, stress, ageing, neural plasticity, sleep and diseases of the nervous system. The aim of the initiative is to foster an interest among young people in the study of the structure and functioning of the human brain, and to attract young talent to research in the fields of experimental and clinical neuroscience, which represent the great challenge of our millennium.
The event originated in the United States in 1998 and currently involves more than 50 countries worldwide. Italy has been taking part in the international competition since 2010 through the Neuroscience Olympiads, which have gradually expanded across the whole of Italy, reaching 18 regions by the 2019 edition, with more than 220 schools and 5,500 participating students. The national event is organised by the Italian Society for Neuroscience (SINS), which is the leading national interdisciplinary scientific society dedicated to the study of the nervous system and its disorders.