How does Finland choose its IBO team?

Upper secondary students take a national online test in April. The best are invited to a training group that meets for a week in August and again the following April, ending in a final exam that selects the team. Up to four students represent Finland at the IBO.

Who organises the Finnish biology competition?

The IBO lists the Biologian ja maantieteen opettajien liitto BMOL ry (the Association of Biology and Geography Teachers) as the organiser, with training run together with the University of Helsinki and Aalto University. The Finnish National Agency for Education is named as the funder in University of Helsinki reports.

Students in upper secondary school (lukio) can take the first-round test. For the IBO team the usual IBO age rule applies, and students too old for the IBO can still take part for fun, according to the IBO's country page.

Is this guide written by a Finnish participant?

No. It is an outline of the official picture from published sources, with tips from BiOGuide. We are looking for a Finnish olympiad participant or coach to write a firsthand guide and replace this one.

Finland Kansallinen biologiakilpailu: Official Outline of the Path to IBO

Finland has sent students to the International Biology Olympiad (IBO) since 1997, and at the 37th IBO in Vilnius, Lithuania (12 to 19 July 2026) the four-student team came home with three bronze medals and one honourable mention.³ This page outlines how the path to that team works according to the sources we could read. It is a map of the structure, not an insider’s account of what the exams feel like.

Programme: Kansallinen biologiakilpailu (National Biology Competition), the IBO's entry for Finland¹
Organiser: Biologian ja maantieteen opettajien liitto BMOL ry, with training together with the University of Helsinki and Aalto University^1,3
Who can enter: Upper secondary (lukio) students for the first round; the IBO age rules apply to the team¹
Stages: National online test, training group and August training week, spring training and final exam, IBO team of up to four
Official website: BMOL ry competition pages on Peda.net
Language: Finnish for the national competition and the official pages; the IBO itself is in English

The path at a glance

Stage	What happens	How sure we are
Round 1, national test	A multiple choice and true or false test on a digital platform, taken at school in April	Good for the structure; the 2026 date is from the organiser’s page
Training group and August week	The best of round 1 are invited to a five-day training week in August with a mock IBO exam	Medium; the IBO’s page is self-reported and undated in places
Spring training and final	Four to five days of training the following April, then a final exam that selects the team	Medium; how the final places are decided is not stated
IBO team	Up to four students, selected through the competition and the Helsinki and Aalto Junior training	Good that the team is four; the exact selection rule is not stated

Stage 1: the national test

The first round is a national test on a digital platform, taken at school, with multiple choice and true or false questions.¹ The IBO’s country page puts it in April, and the organiser’s competition page lists 23 April 2026 as the date of the biology competition.^1,2 All upper secondary students can take part, and the IBO’s page says students who are too old for the IBO may join for fun.¹ Participation figures are given by the IBO’s page for 2019 to 2025 and are typically 550 to 700 students from 66 to 100 schools.¹ The organiser’s 2026 pages are partly behind a password, so we could not read the current rules in full.

Stage 2: the training group and the August week

The best performers in round 1 are invited to a training group, taking the IBO age rules into account.¹ The IBO’s page describes a five-day training week in August at Aalto University, ending with a mock IBO exam, theory and practical, at the University of Helsinki.¹ A University of Helsinki report from 2022 describes the training as two hands-on weeks, one on molecular biology with Aalto Junior in the autumn and one on plant and animal biology and ecology in the spring with the Finnish Museum of Natural History (Luomus) and the Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, alongside independent study and an online portal.⁴ That report was written in Finnish, and our reading of it is a translation. The costs of the training weeks are covered, according to the IBO’s page.¹

Stage 3: spring training and the final exam

According to the IBO’s page, the following April there are four to five more days of training, followed by a final exam that selects the Olympic team.¹ We read the whole cycle as running from the April test of one year to the final in the April of the next, with the IBO in July, but the pages we could read do not set this out in one place. How many students are invited to the training group and how the final exam places are decided are listed in the box below.

Stage 4: the IBO team

Up to four students represent Finland, and the University of Helsinki’s 2026 news item says the 2026 team of four was selected through the national competition and the Helsinki and Aalto Junior training.³ The same item names the Finnish National Agency for Education as a funder of the training and describes the 2026 result as the best among the Nordic countries.³ The coordinator of the training is at the University of Helsinki’s Luomus.³ The IBO’s page adds that the top ten of the final receive a diploma and a guaranteed place on a biotechnology and biomedicine programme at Tampere if they apply; check the current university policy before relying on this.¹ The next IBO is in Warsaw, Poland, in July 2027.³

Points for an Author

If you went through this programme yourself, these are the points we most need you to settle. They are grouped here so that nothing uncertain is buried in the text above.

Where the sources disagree

When the training takes place. The IBO’s page puts the training group in August and the final stage the following April,¹ while the 2022 University of Helsinki report describes an autumn and a spring week without months.⁴ These look compatible, but we could not confirm the exact months from an independent source.
Where the organiser’s information is. The IBO lists BMOL ry as the organiser and describes it as appointed at the Ministry of Education’s request,¹ while the 2026 University of Helsinki item names the National Agency for Education as the funder and the University of Helsinki and Aalto as training partners.³ These roles may simply differ, but no page we read sets them side by side.

Gaps a firsthand author could fill

How many students are invited to the training group, and whether round 1 has a published cut-off score.
How the final exam places are decided, and whether other results count.
The exact months of the August and spring training weeks in the current year.
The syllabus for round 1 and the final, and what the tests are like.
Finland’s results at the IBO in 2024 and 2025, which we could not confirm from a source we opened.
The age limit used for the national training group.
Whether the autumn and spring weeks are open to students outside the Helsinki and Espoo area, and who covers travel.

Our reading of the Finnish pages (the organiser’s page and both University of Helsinki items) is a translation, and every date from them depends on it. A firsthand author can settle every one of these points. If that could be you, email us or read how it works.

BiOGuide tips for students aiming at this path

These are general tips from BiOGuide, not advice from a Finnish participant, and they apply to any student aiming at an IBO team.

Train for the international format early. The IBO papers are in English and test reasoning on data and experiments, not only recall. The IBO preparation guide explains the format, and past IBO papers are in our practice papers.
Cover the training areas. The Finnish training touches molecular biology, plants, animals and ecology, which line up with our notes on cell and molecular biology, plant physiology, animal physiology and ecology.
Practise the practical side. The mock exam and the IBO both include practical exams, so learn the lab techniques and not only the theory.
Learn the English terms. Even if you study in Finnish or Swedish, learn the English names of structures, processes and methods, because the IBO papers are written in English.
Use the official channels for anything dated. Test dates and training weeks change every year. Your school’s biology teacher and BMOL ry decide, not us.

Official links and sources

International Biology Olympiad, country page for the Kansallinen biologiakilpailu (in English, self-reported by the organiser and partly undated). ibo-info.org
BMOL ry on Peda.net, national biology and geography competitions for upper secondary students (in Finnish, official national site, 2026; parts are password protected). peda.net
Finnish Museum of Natural History (Luomus), University of Helsinki, news item on the 2026 IBO, 27 July 2026 (in Finnish). helsinki.fi
University of Helsinki science education, news item on the Finnish IBO training and the 2022 results, 30 August 2022 (in Finnish; the page is old). helsinki.fi

Two more notes on sources. The Finnish pages are read through our own translation, and one detail in the research behind this guide, a 2025 silver medal, was seen only in a search summary and is not stated here for that reason. The IBO’s own list of member countries is at ibo-info.org.

This outline was last checked on 8 October 2026 and will age. Spotted an error or out-of-date detail? Email r6394175@gmail.com.