Irish young scientists win a top award at European event

Ireland's young scientists have done it again, winning a major prize at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists in Prague today.

Ciara Judge, Emer Hickey and Sophie Healy-Thow won a first prize in the biology section at the competition in Prague.

Last January their project on plant germination won the top prize in the 2013 BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition at the RDS.

Their win entitled them to compete in the European Contest representing Ireland. The competition was intense with 120 students from 38 countries taking part. Their prize was € 7,000 plus an all expenses paid trip to the London International Youth Science Forum.

“In 25 years of competing at the EU competition, Ireland has now taken home the top honours 15 times, out-performing all other countries,” said BT’s chief executive officer Colm O’Neill.

The three students are transition years attending Kinsale Community College, Cork.

The 2014 BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition will take place in the RDS, Dublin from January 8th - 11th 2014. Students are being urged to get their entries in by the 2nd October 2013 deadline. For more information on the exhibition, log onto www.btyoungscientist.ie.