How does Italy choose its IBO team?

Upper secondary students in the biology track of the last three years take a school round, a regional test and a national final. The best finalists sit a practical test, and the combined result names the four students who go to the IBO. The sources we could read do not give the exact weighting.

Is there an Italian Biology Olympiad of its own?

Not under that name in the sources we could read. The IBO lists Italy's programme as the Natural Science Olympiad (Olimpiadi delle Scienze Naturali), run by ANISN. Biology is one track of a wider natural sciences competition, and the biology track is the one that feeds the IBO team.

The 2024-25 call (in Italian) says all types of upper secondary school can enter, in three categories: the first two years, the biology track of the last three years, and the Earth science track of the last three years. Only the biology track of the last three years competes for the IBO team. That reading depends on our own translation.

Is this guide written by an Italian participant?

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

Italy Natural Science Olympiad (ANISN): Official Outline of the Path to IBO

Italy sends four students to the International Biology Olympiad (IBO), and the IBO lists Italy as a current member.³ The route there is not a stand-alone biology contest. It runs through a natural sciences competition organised by the national association of natural science teachers, in which biology is one track.^1,2 This page outlines how that path 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. Most of the detail comes from an official call written in Italian, so those facts depend on our own translation.

Programme: Natural Science Olympiad (Olimpiadi delle Scienze Naturali), as the IBO names it; the 2024-25 call calls it the Campionati (formerly Olimpiadi) delle Scienze Naturali^1,2
Organiser: ANISN, the Associazione Nazionale Insegnanti di Scienze Naturali, with the Italian education ministry as promoter^1,2
Who can enter: Upper secondary students; only the biology track of the last three years competes for the IBO team²
Stages: School round, regional test, national final with a practical test, training week, IBO team of four
Official website: anisn.it, as listed by the IBO; we could not open it (see the box below)
Language: Italian for the national competition; the IBO itself is in English

The path at a glance

Stage	What happens	How sure we are
School round	Each school runs its own test, in the 2024-25 call by 15 March	Good for the timing; the format comes only from the undated IBO page
Regional test	One written test on the same day across Italy, in 2025 on 26 March	Good, from the official call
National final	A weekend in May with a theory contest and, for the biology track, a practical test	Good for the structure; the number taking the practical test is disputed
Training	One intensive residential week of theory and lab work	Good that it exists; details are thin
IBO team	Four students plus two teachers	Good for the size; the exact weighting of results is not stated

Stage 1: the school round

Every school that joins runs its own first round. The 2024-25 call sets 15 March 2025 as the end of this stage, says each school prepares the material with its own teachers, and does not state a format.² The IBO’s country page describes a first round of multiple choice, essay and oral tests with tens of thousands of students, but that page is undated and its figures stop in 2021.¹ Registration was free in 2024-25 and Italian schools abroad could enter.² Check the current call for the deadline, because it changes each year.

Stage 2: the regional test

The regional test is a written, timed exam held on the same day everywhere; in 2025 it was Wednesday 26 March. The call describes multiple choice questions with four options and possibly a few open questions with a single answer.² The top-ranked students of each region go through to the national final, and the best student from a technical or professional school in the first two years is also taken into the final through a special route.² The sources we could read do not give the number of places per region.

Stage 3: the national final

The national final takes place over a weekend in May, with the contest itself on a Saturday; in 2025 the weekend was 9 to 11 May and the contest was on 10 May.² The 2024 final was held in Assisi.² It is similar in style to the regional test and may add true or false statements, and the organiser covers the students’ stay.² For the biology track, the top-ranked finalists then take a practical biology test during the same event, and the theory and practical results together decide the national winners, who gets the IBO preparation stage, and who makes the team.² How many students sit the practical test is stated differently in our two sources, so we leave that to the box below.

Stage 4: training and the IBO team

A group of students attends one intensive residential week of theory and laboratory work, planned for the second half of May to the end of the school year.² The IBO’s page describes a week of training at universities or research institutions, about a month of study in total, and a week of lab work for the top ten national winners; that page is undated.¹ The Italian delegation is four students and two accompanying teachers, who also translate the papers into Italian, and winners had to confirm their participation by 31 May in 2025.² The 2024-25 call reports that in 2024, at the IBO in Astana, Italy won one silver and two bronze medals.²

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

How many students take the practical test. The IBO’s page says the top 20 do,¹ while the 2024-25 call says only the top-ranked of the biology track, without a number.²
The name of the programme. The IBO lists the Natural Science Olympiad (Olimpiadi delle Scienze Naturali),¹ while the 2024-25 call speaks of the Campionati (formerly Olimpiadi) delle Scienze Naturali.² These look like one programme under an old and a new name; the renaming is our reading of a translated phrase.
The date of the IBO in the 2024-25 call. The call gives the IBO dates in Quezon City as 20 to 27 July 2024, but the same document reports the 2024 IBO as already held in Astana. We read the year as a typo for 2025 and did not confirm the dates in a second source.
How old the IBO page is. The IBO page gives student numbers up to 2021 and no date, so its figures describe an earlier period than the 2024-25 call.¹

Gaps a firsthand author could fill

The official website. The IBO lists anisn.it and an olympiad subdomain, but when we tried them one returned a not found error and the other refused the connection, so we could not read the syllabus or past papers that the call refers to.
How many places each region gets in the national final, and the format of the school round.
How the theory and practical results are weighted to choose the four team members, and the number who attend the training week.
The call for 2025-26 or later. We did not find a newer call than 2024-25.
What the exams, the national weekend and the training are actually like, and what students wish they had known.

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 an Italian 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.
Do not neglect the practical side. Both the Italian national final and the IBO include practical work, so learn the lab techniques and not only the theory. Our practical notes start at practical 1.
Cover the core areas. Our notes on cell and molecular biology, genetics, ecology and evolution are a sensible base for any national biology track.
Learn the English terms. Even if you study in Italian, learn the English names of structures, processes and methods, because the IBO papers are written in English.
Use the official channels for anything dated. Registration deadlines, test dates and formats change every year. Your school’s natural science teacher and the current ANISN call decide, not us.

Official links and sources

International Biology Olympiad, country page for the Italian Natural Science Olympiad. ibo-info.org. The page is undated and its newest figures are from 2021, so we use it mainly for the structure. In English.
ANISN call for the 2024-25 Natural Sciences Championships, dated 18 November 2024, hosted by the Umbria regional education office (in Italian; every fact from it depends on our own translation). istruzione.umbria.it
International Biology Olympiad, list of national and regional olympiads, which includes Italy as a current member (undated). ibo-info.org

We did not open any news article or ministry page for Italy, so everything above rests on these sources.

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