Important Dates for the Fair

December 1, — Certification deadline.

Certification of all projects that fall under ISEF certification rules. The FAVR record must be complete and signed for any project that involves hazardous equipment or materials, vertebrate animals, human subjects, biological agents of any kind.

We require that projects involving vertebrate animals or vertebrate tissues be approved by the TNJSF SRC (not just the local SRC, if one exists) before the work is begun. (We have posted the reasons for this policy.) Note this required approval is in ADDITION to approval by your institutional IACUC. If your project falls under this rule, you must request SRC preapproval in FAVR, since you need that approval before starting your work.

Since we are using FAVR exclusively for this requirement means that your project must be fully specified on FAVR, and that all required signatures must be in place, if your project falls into any of these areas.

, — Registration deadline

All students involved in individual or team projects must have their projects registered on the website and all TNJSF and ISEF forms submitted electronically (or the FVR record complete and fully signed) by this date. All projects should have at least a preliminary Mentor Report submitted on FAVR by this date, as well.

At least preliminary the Mentor Reports must be submitted. (They can be updated until the clearance deadline.)

Once you have completed the project registration on the zFairs site, you can monitor your project status on FAVR.

Your Research Plan and Mentor Report(s) must be complete on FAVR by this date for your project to be included in the Phase I Judging. Entries with incomplete or missing Research Plans and/or Mentor Reports will be automatically withdrawn from the Fair.

, — Final SRC clearance date.

Any issues with your submitted ISEF forms must be cleared by this date.

Final Mentor Reports on FAVR must be submitted by this date.

If applicable to your project, your Project Summary must also be submitted (on FAVR) by this date. If you upload a summary, it should be on the form provided on zfairs. at the time you upload it. The purpose of a summary is to document any omissions from your original plan. This is only important if you plan to continue the work in a subsequent year.

, Phase I results announced.

Students and sponsors will be notified by email.

, — Abstract, and Supplemental Registration deadline

Abstracts are to be submitted via FAVR, on the form provided there. Note: as of 9/16, this form is not yet enabled. Abstracts are manually reviewed before they are posted on the site, so be sure you make allowance for that delay. Abstracts submitted earlier in the process can be revised until this date.

For projects which are not participating in the judging phase of the fair the abstract deadline is also .

PROJECTS WITHOUT AN ABSTRACT WILL BE WITHDRAWN.

, Your presentation file (powerpoint or pdf) must be initially submitted by this date.

These files, which will be inspected by the Display and Safety Committee for compliance with display rules, will be used for the virtual fair, which opens the day after the physical event.

, — Deadline for approval of Presentation File

For projects being judged further, your presentation file must be approved by the Display and Safety Committee on or before this date. Since the reviews take time, do not put this off to the last minute.

IMPORTANT NOTE We will allow changes for final approval until , but delayed approval may impact your eligibility for certain special awards. Some special award judges will be reviewing projects for preliminary selection starting earlier in March. The presentation file must be approved before it is released, so take that into account in your planning. Early submission is a good idea.

For projects not participating in the judging phase the presentation file must be submitted by , and will be released after approval.

March : Exhibition and judging at Kean University

See the Fair Schedule for details.

March , — Awards Ceremony

March , — Release of Public Virtual Fair

Your abstract will link to the presentation file, which will become public at this point, providing you gave permission on your Supplementary Registration form. You will have the option, either before or after the fair, to submit a recorded video, using your approved presentation file, to describe your project. These videos will be accessible only for the public virtual fair: they are not used (or viewed) before or during judging. These videos will also be subject to approval by the Display and Safety Committee.