For participants at SciFest
Photo: Tobias Sterner/Bildbyrån
SciFest is a science festival that takes place between 8 and 10 October. You will have the opportunity to showcase your research/activities in an interactive way. Expect lots of questions and exciting discussions! The target audience includes school classes and the public.
The festival usually attracts around 7,000 visitors. SciFest is organised by SLU and Uppsala University. It is a broad festival with activities from the humanities, social sciences, technology, natural sciences and medicine.
Join SciFest – for your benefit and the visitors’
Exhibitors say that SciFest is well organised, easy to take part in and a genuinely enjoyable experience. The audience is cheerful, curious and eager to learn. It is also a great opportunity to practise explaining your research in a clear, engaging and accessible way.
Taking part is one way to fulfil the mission of engaging with society, and it also provides valuable experience you can highlight on your CV or in future applications.
New perspectives
“Children’s questions make you see your research in a completely new light.”
Photo: Tobias Sterner / Bildbyrån
We’ll help you prepare for SciFest
Join our information meeting and workshops, where you’ll get practical guidance and support. You can also email the contact persons at Uppsala University and SLU at any time.
SciFest Last-Minute Help 14 September
Need inspiration? Here we’ve gathered advice for anyone who would like to take part in SciFest.
Plan your participation
April – Information meeting and registration opens
Curious about SciFest?
Join our digital information meeting on 8 April, 14:00–14:45.
Registration opens in mid-April.
When you register, you will be given two options. Will your activity be a drop-in activity only, or would you also like to offer a workshop for school classes on Thursday–Friday? Those who offer a workshop will receive a larger stand. On Saturday, all stands will host drop-in activities.
8 and 18 May – Get inspiration and tips
Take the opportunity to join a workshop at the University museum Gustavianum, led by the experienced museum educators Cecilia Ödman and Leif Hallsén. You will receive practical tips and advice on how to design your activity and what is important to consider as an exhibitor when interacting with visitors. We will also go through how to describe your activity in an engaging and appealing way.
June – Registration closes
Deadline for registration.
By this date, you must have entered all information about your activity into the booking system, including a description of your activity and the times for your workshop. After that, you will have time to design your activity. The SciFest team will help you throughout the process.
20-27 Aug – Inform us about the practicalities
Deadline for all practical details. The SciFest team will send out a request in good time regarding your needs for electricity, internet connection, transport, food, etc. Information about safety and regulations at SciFest.
The booking system vill be open between August 20-27th for you to enter this information.
7 October – Transport to Scifest
Joint transport of materials to Fyrishov, Uppsala. (Only applies to university employees in Uppsala).
Gather your strength because it's close. The door to SciFest 2026 opens on 9 October!
This is SciFest
The aim of SciFest is to give children and school students the opportunity to discover how much fun science can be, and hopefully plant a seed that will lead young people to become more interested in science and perhaps even become researchers themselves.
SciFest is organised by SLU and Uppsala University.
Interactivity
Think about how you can present your research through games, experiments, quizzes, competitions or other activities that visitors can touch, smell, hear, discuss and experience. How can visitors contribute? Maybe they can make/build or vote on something?
Theme: Research in the Future
We are also collaborating with Researchers’ Friday (ForskarFredag). If you would like to connect your activity to their theme “Research in the Future” you are very welcome to do so, but it is of course not a requirement. At SciFest, as always, we aim to showcase a broad mix of research from all disciplines.
Photo: Tobias Sterner / Bildbyrån
How it works
SciFest exhibitors come from schools, universities, companies, authorities, museums and organisations. The first days of the festival are dedicated to school pupils and teachers. On the final day, SciFest opens its doors to the public (often parents and children).
Drop-in and workshop
You will be manning your stand at SciFest throughout the fair, but you can also organise a workshop for school classes at specific times of your choosing. You decide the target audience yourself: middle school, high school, or upper secondary school. It is possible to to have different target groups at different times during the day.
Those who run a workshop during the school days will get a larger booth throughout SciFest. When there is no workshop, your activity will be a drop-in activity.
- Booth with workshop: area 5x5m, 2 tables, and 16 chairs, two or three walls.
- Booth with drop-in only: area varies, standard setup 1 table and 2 chairs, at least one wall to hang things on.
- All activities have access to two power sockets and Wi-Fi.
Opening hours
- Opening hours between 9 and 15 on Thursday and Friday, and 9 and 16 on Saturday.
Registration
Registration opens in April. Check out our timeline to see what happens on different dates.
Language
Most visitors speak Swedish. If you don't have Swedish-speaking people in your group, we encourage you to bring a Swedish-speaking student or perhaps a communicatons officer who can help communicate with the visitors. However, many children and youngsters speak English well, so there is no need for everyone to speak Swedish.
Candy and give-aways
Remember that SciFest is a candy-free event. Also avoid stickers, balloons and similar things as they tend to spread around the venue. Children and young people are resourceful.
Do you have questions or want to exchange ideas?
The SciFest team is happy to help you! We involve both exhibition educators and communicators. Together we can work out an activity that suits your research at an early stage.
For SLU
All fields of science
- Contact Anna Lundmark, email: anna.lundmark@slu.se
For Uppsala University
- Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences
Contact Azul Tarazona Machicao, email azul.tarazona@konstvet.uu.se - Disciplinary Domain of Medicine and Pharmacy
Contact Maria Ferletta, email maria.ferletta@uu.se or Joakim Bergström joakim.bergstrom@uu.se - Disciplinary Domain of Technology and Natural Sciences,
Contact Maja Garde Lindholm, email maja.garde.lindholm@uu.se
For external exhibitors
Contact Katarina Holmborn Garpenstrand, email: katarina.garpenstrand@uu.se