How does the UAE choose its IBO team?

The IBO lists the Ministry of Education's Masterminds Program, which starts with an online qualifying exam and continues with training and camps. A 2026 news report describes a student who came third in a second round, attended a national camp and then joined a team of four. The sources we could read do not give the official selection rules.

Is there a UAE Biology Olympiad?

We found no stand-alone biology contest by that name. The IBO lists the Masterminds Program, a multi-subject ministry programme, as the UAE's national biology olympiad.

The IBO lists grades 8 to 12 in public and private schools. A 2026 news report describes an A-level student from a private school on the team.

Is this guide written by an Emirati participant?

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

UAE Masterminds Program: Official Outline of the Path to IBO

The United Arab Emirates sends students to the International Biology Olympiad (IBO) through the Masterminds Program, which the IBO lists as the national biology olympiad. The UAE hosted the 34th IBO in Al Ain in July 2023, where an Emirati student won the country’s first IBO medal, a bronze.² This page outlines how the path works according to the sources we could read. The IBO’s description is old and thin, so this is a short outline with many open points.

Programme: Masterminds Program, a multi-subject programme; the IBO lists it for biology¹
Organiser: UAE Ministry of Education, Activities and Care Sector¹
Who can enter: Grades 8 to 12 in public and private schools, according to the IBO¹
Stages: Online qualifying exam, training classes, camps, IBO team
Official website: The IBO lists competitions.ae/masterminds, but that address no longer leads to the programme, so we do not link it
Language: The IBO lists English and Arabic for the website; the exam language is not stated

The path at a glance

Stage	What happens	How sure we are
Qualifying exam	An online exam, mostly multiple choice plus an essay	Low to medium: the IBO page is undated and its figures are from 2020
Training classes	Weekly sessions over the school year, with catch-up classes for grades 8 and 9	Low to medium
Camps	A camp in April at UAE University, Al Ain, and a closed camp in June	Low to medium
IBO team	A team of four, as one student’s account describes	Medium for the account, low for the official rules

What the IBO page says

The IBO page lists the qualifying exam as online and mostly multiple choice with an essay. It reports 585 students overall in November 2020, of whom 173, 171 and 241 qualified in biology in grades 10, 11 and 12.¹ Grade 8 and 9 students take four weeks of catch-up classes to reach grade 10 level, then join grade 10 in alternating weeks. National team training is weekly, with at least two hours of biology a week over a school year that runs from August to June, followed by an April camp at UAE University and a closed June camp.¹ The page names only physics, maths and chemistry in its description of weekly team training, not biology. It gives no quotas, and the data in it appear to be from 2020.

A recent account

A Khaleej Times report from 16 August 2026 describes a Dubai student who entered the UAE biology qualifiers on a teacher’s suggestion, came third nationally in the second round, attended a national training camp and joined a team of four that won a bronze medal at the 37th IBO in Vilnius.³ It says selection was delayed that year, that the team was notified on 28 May, that online lessons ran for about six hours a week from 1 June to 4 July, and that the students paid their own flights.³ It is one student’s story, not an official description, and it does not name the organiser of the qualifiers.

Recent results

The Ministry of Education reports that the 2023 team’s Reem Rashid Alnaqbi won a bronze medal at the home IBO.² A 2022 ministry news item says four students represented the UAE in the biology olympiad.⁴ The 2026 report above describes a bronze medal as the second IBO medal in the UAE’s history.³ We did not find medal results for 2024 or 2025.

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

The start year. The IBO page header says the programme was established in 2017, while its text says it launched in February 2018.¹
The stages. The IBO page describes a qualifying exam, catch-up classes, training, an April camp and a June camp,¹ while the 2026 news account speaks of qualifiers, a second round and a national camp.³ We could not match the two.
The name. The dataset used the name UAE Biology Olympiad, which we found nowhere. The IBO lists the Masterminds Program.¹

Gaps a firsthand author could fill

The current official stages, dates, exam format and quotas for biology, and who runs the qualifiers today.
How the IBO team of four is chosen, and whether private school and A-level students enter the same way as ministry curriculum students.
The working official website, since the one the IBO lists no longer leads to the programme.
What the qualifiers, the training and the camps 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 Emirati 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.
Practise the practical side. The IBO has practical stations, so learn lab techniques as well as theory. Our notes on practical skills are a start.
Build the core theory. Work through cell and molecular biology, animal physiology and genetics.
Learn the English terms. The IBO papers are written in English, so learn the English names of structures, processes and methods.
Use the official channels for anything dated. Dates, eligibility and selection rules change every year. Ask your school and the Ministry of Education, not us.

Official links and sources

International Biology Olympiad, country page for the UAE Masterminds Program. ibo-info.org. The page is undated and its figures appear to date from 2020, so we use it for the structure only.
UAE Ministry of Education, 11 July 2023, on the close of the 34th IBO in Al Ain (in English). moe.gov.ae
Khaleej Times, 16 August 2026, on a Dubai student’s bronze medal at the 37th IBO (news, in English). khaleejtimes.com
UAE Ministry of Education, 21 July 2022, on the national team’s medals (in English; it does not name the IBO). moe.gov.ae

The address the IBO lists as the programme website redirects to an unrelated business, so we do not link it. We found no working official page for the biology programme on the ministry site. No fact in this guide depends on a translation.

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