We are inviting educators of displaced students and their classes to participate in the 5th Science United Festival. While the Festival prioritizes classrooms with displaced (refugee, asylum seeker, migrant, internally displaced) students, teachers who have students from minority, disadvantaged, or indigenous backgrounds are encouraged to apply on behalf of their classes as well.

Science United Festival aims to give refugee/displaced students’ teachers the opportunity to build their network and participate in a community of educators who work in the same context as them. Participating educators will also receive support for their project through mentorship and professional learning opportunities. Following the Festival, educators will be awarded a certificate for their participation and receive credit for their work on the Science United Project and Science United Festival’s website.

Benefits and Responsibilities

1. Participation in the Festival is free of charge thanks to the support of the Blossom Hill Foundation and dedicated volunteers.
2. Each participating student team will have its own page on the Festival website, where it will receive encouraging feedback.
3. Teachers receive support, professional development opportunities, and networking opportunities with educators working in similar contexts.
4. All participants, teachers and students, will receive a certificate of participation.
5. The expected time commitment for teachers is estimated at 4 teaching hours, 4–8 hours of preparation of the scientific project and video, up to 3 meetings of the educators’ community (approximately 1 hour each), and 4 hours of professional development (optional).
6. Teachers must agree to the Festival’s Child Protection Policy, watch the relevant recorded seminar (15 minutes long), and complete a quiz.
7. Teachers must submit signed consent forms for each of their students to the Organizing Committee. Consent forms are available in Greek, English, French, Arabic, Persian, Kurmanji, Russian, and Ukrainian.
8. Teachers are expected to work with their student teams during February and March to develop the content of their page, namely to:
   1. choose a name for their team,
   2. create a flag (preferably square or circular),
   3. write a paragraph describing their team, and
   4. create a science-related video (e.g. a demonstration, an experiment, a model, etc.).The video, which will be uploaded to YouTube and the Festival website, must be up to 5 minutes long and must not show children’s faces.
9. Teams are expected to watch the videos of other teams on the Festival website in April–May 2026, exchange comments, and read and respond to the encouraging feedback from the Festival mentors.
10. Teachers must complete an evaluation questionnaire about their experience in the Festival.

The Science United Festival has received approval from the Greek Institute of Educational Policy (IEP) for the 2023-24 school year. The teams selected to participate in the Festival will receive the necessary documents for approval from their school.
Registrations are open until February 2, 2026. Sign up by filling out the form below.
The Festival website for 2025–2026 will be available in English; however, every possible effort will be made to support and facilitate teachers.
For more information, you may contact us through the Contact Form. 

Please, take the time to read carefully our Child Protection Policy and the participation process as described in detail at the Terms and Conditions page.

Apply at the form below by February 2nd, 2026. 

We are looking for volunteer refugee/displaced professional scientists or graduate students enrolled as science majors to serve as mentors and role models for Science United Festival’s participants.

Mentors are of fundamental importance for Science United Festival’s impact on participant students. By sharing their story, their cultural background, their dreams and positive words, the mentors will encourage participating students from around the world to be optimistic, resilient, and continue their academic efforts in science.

The mentor’s role consists of the following obligations:

1. Introduce themselves, their story of displacement, and their science journey in a short video-story in English and their native language. Guiding questions are available on the application form below. Mentor video-stories will be uploaded on YouTube and embedded on a dedicated Mentors page at the Science United Festival’s website (with mentor’s written consent). The video-stories will be shared on the Science United Project and Blossom Hill Foundation social media channels (with mentor’s written consent) to facilitate communications and promote the Festival.
   Watch the Science United Festival 2022 mentor video-stories here. 
2. Record an informative short video (<1min) explaining the Festival in their native language. Script will be provided. 
3. Meet and communicate via email with the Festival Organizing Committee to discuss the mentor role, as well as the storyboard and editing of the video-story. 
4. Provide encouraging feedback via written comments or video to student projects during the Festival period (April-May, 2023).
5. Take part in an online honorary ceremony in June 2026.

The expected involvement is estimated at approximately 15 hours. Please, take the time to read carefully our Child Protection Policy and the participation process as described in detail at the Terms and Conditions page.

Please apply at the form below.