Saturday, 14 March 2026 Slovenia’s best young biologists competed in Izola today

Today our faculty hosted the National Biology Competition for the Proteus Award in Izola, organized by the Association for Technical Culture of Slovenia (ZOTKS). For the past 25 years, the competition has brought together the most successful secondary school students from across Slovenia and encouraged interest in biology and the natural sciences.

The competition is held in two stages – first at the school level and then at the national level. Each year, the four best competitors form the Slovenian biology olympiad team, which represents Slovenia at international competitions.

This year, 2,032 students participated in the school-level competition, and 483 students reached the threshold to qualify for the national round. They competed today in Izola, in the Livade 1.0 and InnoRenew facilities.

At the opening of the competition, participants were welcomed by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Živa Fišer, Head of the Department of Biodiversity at UP FAMNIT, Milan Bogatič, Mayor of the Municipality of Izola, Prof. Dr. Ademir Hujdurović, Dean of the faculty, Jožef Školč, Secretary General of ZOTKS, and Margareta Obrovnik (ZOTKS).

While the students were solving the competition tasks, colleagues from the Department of Biodiversity and the Department of Applied Natural Sciences organized a short professional lecture and a guided tour of the laboratories in the Livade 1.0 building for more than 50 mentors.

Hosting the national competition represents an important opportunity to connect young talents, mentors, and researchers, as well as to encourage young people’s interest in biology and the natural sciences, which is why we were pleased to host the event.

We wish all competitors the best of luck and every success in their future challenges.