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How talks are judged

Four criteria, equally weighted. Every panel uses the same rubric — from the first regional heat to the grand finale.

The four criteria

Every judge scores each contestant on the same four dimensions. The criteria are weighted equally because we have never met a great talk that wins only one of them.

Criterion What judges are watching for Weight
Comprehension Did the talk make a complicated idea legible to a non-specialist? Could a smart stranger summarise the work back to you in one sentence? 25%
Content Was the underlying work substantive? Is the problem real, the approach sound, the evidence specific? 25%
Engagement Did the speaker hold the room? Did they earn attention, or rely on the format to keep it? 25%
Communication Were pacing, language, slide, and stage presence all working together — or fighting each other? 25%

Audience score

At every level of the competition there is also a People's Choice award decided entirely by audience voting. It is not a tiebreaker — it is its own prize, often the one finalists value most.

Panel composition

Every regional heat seats a panel of three to five judges. Panels are composed to give contestants a fair shot regardless of their background.

  • At least one technical specialist active in research or engineering.
  • At least one founder or operator from industry.
  • At least one communicator — journalist, science writer, or editor.
  • Balanced for age, gender, and discipline. Panels are rotated annually.
  • Judges declare any conflict of interest but still score each contestant in their session — recusals dilute the consistency of the panel.

What does not influence the score

  • The contestant's institution, prior publications, or social following.
  • Whether the topic is in the judge's discipline. (Judges score against the rubric, not their own preferences.)
  • Whether the work is finished, peer-reviewed, or commercialised. We are judging the talk, not the CV.

The 2026 grand finale panel

The grand finale panel is announced each October. Past panels have included Nobel laureates, founders of public companies, and editors-in-chief of the world's most-read science publications — alongside last year's winner, who always gets a seat at the table.

See past finalists