Hanwha Group said on Monday that 10 winners of the Hanwha Science Challenge 2025 took part in a six-night, eight-day overseas tour of research institutions in Germany. The tour involved 10 students from five teams that won silver or higher and was linked to the contest theme, "Saving the Earth."

Students visited Forschungszentrum Juelich, the world's largest single research institution, as well as the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, TU Darmstadt, TU Berlin, the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications and the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam. At Forschungszentrum Juelich, they studied research cases in solar power generation, hydrogen technology, life sciences and the environment.

At the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, they were introduced to research on new materials. At TU Darmstadt and TU Berlin, they held academic and career mentoring sessions with master's and doctoral students majoring in industrial AI, metal additive manufacturing technology and renewable energy. The Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam, one of the world's top 10 astrophysics research institutes, drew strong interest from the students.

The Hanwha Science Challenge began after Kim Seung-youn, chairman of Hanwha Group, proposed in 2011 to "nurture young Nobel Prize winners." About 18,000 high school students have taken part over 14 years. In the 2025 contest, the "Dancing Pine" team from Seongju Girls' High School won the top prize for research on a high-efficiency lure trap that supplemented problems and limitations of traps that attract pine wood nematodes.

The 2026 contest will begin accepting document submissions from March on the contest website under the theme "creative ideas for a sustainable tomorrow." Total prize money is 200 million won, with 40 million won for the top prize, 20 million won each for two gold-prize teams and 10 million won each for two silver-prize teams. The five winning teams receiving the top, gold and silver prizes will be given an opportunity to join an overseas science-institution tour program.