The Vernadsky Contest is held annually in two rounds.

The first round is extramural. To participate, it is required to send the Organizational Committee a research project, completed by a student under 17 years of age, and fill out an application form. The application deadline is January 15. Application forms and the list of requirements are available in the Contest Regulations section on the Contest's website.

Unlike other contests of similar format, the Vernadsky Contest provides its participants with qualified reviews, which are sent to authors. Be the project selected for the second round or not, this is a compulsory procedure. This approach allows setting up contacts with the author, giving him/her an objective professional view of their work. It is quite frequent that the author amends his research paper by implementing all of the notes, sends it for the second time and finally does make it to the second round.

The second round is intramural; it is held in Moscow within a 4 to 5 day period. It carries the title of «the Vernadsky Readings». The projects, which successfully went through selection process, are presented during the Readings .

The unique feature of the Contest is that the best papers are published in the Contest almanac, prior to the beginning of the Readings to be later distributed among the participants. This almanac is included in the official catalogue of publications, therefore the piece published in it, receives a status of the real publication and may be referred to when entering a college or applying for a job. At this point it is the only precedent in Russia on the junior contest scale.

The Readings are organized in sections.

The finalists of the second round are awarded with diplomas, presented by the Russian Ministry of Education and other founders of the Contest; they receive gifts