Requirements

Please note that all information on this page is in a draft version. Please check back often for details.

REQUIREMENTS FOR ALL TEAMS

All iGEM teams must meet the following requirements to participate in the 2014 competition. Additional requirements specific to New Track teams are listed in the section below.

1. Team Composition
2. Team Structure
3. Registration and Other Fees
4. Project Documentation
5. Part Submission
6. Attribution
7. Safety
8. Project Presentation
9. Positive Contribution

1. Team Composition:

   The undergraduate section may have students who are up to 23 years old or younger and the overgraduate section can have students of any age.
   • An iGEM team must be affiliated with an accredited college or university.
   • The team must be supervised by at least two instructors, one of who must be a faculty member.
   • Students are considered undergraduates if they are 23 years of age or younger on 31 March 2014.
   • The team classification deadline is the same date as the roster deadline.

   (Read more about the introduction of the Undergraduate/Overgraduate sections in our 2013 competition Welcome letter)

2. Team Structure:

   The structure of iGEM teams is flexible. Several schools may combine to form a team and a school may have several teams. In particular, it is normal for a school to have both Software and Wetware teams.

3. Registration and Other Fees:

   • Team registration: A $TBD USD team registration fee is required for each team. (due to TBD).
   • World Championship attendance fees: For teams that advance to the World Championship, attendance fees are TBD.
   • For more information about fees see team registration fee page

4. Project Documentation:

   The team's project must be documented on the iGEM Wiki, the parts used in their project must be documented in the Registry. You have the freedom to be creative, but a few specific rules apply. See the wiki requirements page.

5. Part Submission:

   Your submissions are needed to make the Registry better each year. Teams are required to provide their parts as:
   • Standard biological parts in a standard BioBrick shipping plasmid pSB1C3, and as
   • High-quality documentation in the iGEM Registry.
   The physical DNA must be received by the Registry by the deadline. Be sure you understand the requirements before submitting your DNA. See the Registry DNA submission instructions. Parts must be Released in order to be considered by the judges. See the Requirements for Release

6. Attribution:

   The description of each project must clearly attribute work done by the Students and distinguish it from work done by others, including host labs, Advisors, Instructors, technicians, sponsors, professional website designers, artists, and commercial services. Please see the iGEM 2011 Imperial College Acknowledgements page for an example.

7. Safety:

   Teams are required to answer the Safety form by the deadline. The team PI (principle investigator) is responsible for attesting to the validity of the safety form contents and for submitting the form. See the Safety page for details.

8. Project Presentation:

   All team members are encouraged to attend the Giant Jamboree in October/November 2014. Each team will give a 20 minute presentation and present a poster of their project. Oral and poster presentations must be given by the students. Final pdf files of the posters must be submitted to iGEM HQ before or during the Jamboree weekend.

9. Positive Contribution:

   All participants are required to work hard to build positive contributions to society and have lots of fun!

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR NEW TRACK TEAMS

1. Art and Design
2. Community Labs
3. Entrepreneurship
4. Measurement
5. Microfluidics
6. Policy & Practices
7. Software

1. Art and Design:

   Art and Design teams, please see the Art and Design page. In addition the the general requirements for all iGEM teams listed above, Art and Design teams are required to complete the following:

   • Team Composition While iGEM is primarily a student competition, we acknowledge that there may be artists and designers who are interested in participating and who do not have a university affiliation. We strongly recommend that artists interested in participating with a team or forming their own iGEM team find team members and advisors from local universities or community labs. This is an experimental track, so please contact us at artdesign@igem.org with any questions or concerns about participation and team requirements.
   • Project Presentation: Each team must give a twenty minute presentation discussing their project at the Jamboree, including description of goals, process, and outcomes. In addition, teams must present a poster during the Jamboree poster sessions. Please feel free to bring any additional materials that support the presentation of your projects. Special presentation requirements (e.g. video screening, installations) can be arranged on a case by case basis (deadline for special requests: October 1, 2014). Please contact artdesign@igem.org with questions.
   • BioBrick Parts:Teams participating in the Art and Design tracks are strongly encouraged to work with the materials of synthetic biology, including BioBrick parts, although it is not a strict requirement. To receive a distribution copy of the parts registry, teams must request one from artdesign@igem.org and have an affiliated university or community laboratory and follow all safety regulations. Teams that do wish to use and submit a new part must adhere to safety and iGEM submission guidelines.

2. Community Labs:

   Community Lab teams please see the Community Labs New Track page . In addition the the general requirements for all iGEM teams listed above, Community Lab teams are required to complete the following:

3. Entrepreneurship:

   Entrepreneurship teams please see the Entrepreneurship New Track page. In addition the the general requirements for all iGEM teams listed above, Entrepreneurship teams are required to complete the following:

   • Lightning pitch: iGEM Entrepreneurship teams should prepare a lightening or elevator pitch. This should be a 3 minute summary of what you are trying to do, how you are doing it and why your audience should invest in you.
   • Business Plan Submission: Submissions are needed to create a valuable community and commons of ideas. Teams are required to document the inspiration and examples of their business models, and solutions to common problems early SB entrepreneurs will likely encounter. The team's submission must be documented on the iGEM Wiki, including but not limited to a public executive summary, elevator pitch (max 3 min) video, and public presentation (Slides). You may upload your video to Vimeo or similar video sharing site that allows embedding so you can share your video on your Wiki, but you must also provide a copy to iGEM HQ.
   • Confidentiality: iGEM does not take a position for or against intellectual property in Synthetic Biology. Note that the iGEM Entrepreneurship track does not require judges to sign non-disclosure agreements.
   • Parts: Entrepreneurship teams are not required to submit parts.

4. Measurement:

   Measumrenent teams, please see the Measurement New Track page. In addition the the general requirements for all iGEM teams listed above, Measurement teams are required to complete the following:

   • Interlab Measurement Study: For the Measurement Track, it is also important to submit data taken for the interlab experiment. Data should be uploaded to the iGEM interlab measurement site, along with accompanying metrology worksheets. Data will not be considered if it is uploaded without an accompanying worksheet or if the worksheet does not give consent for inclusion of the data in the interlab study.
   • Software Submission: If your team's entry includes the development of new software, you must make your software tools available as open source projects on the iGEM servers, per the requirements on the Software requirements page.

5. Microfluidics:

   Microfluidics teams please see the Microfluidics New Track page . In addition the the general requirements for all iGEM teams listed above, Microfluidics teams are required to complete the following:

6. Policy & Practices:

   Policy and Practices teams please see the Policy and Practices New Track page.

   In addition to the general requirements for all iGEM teams listed above, Policy and Practice teams are required to complete the following:

   • Developing your iGEM Policy & Practices Team:
     • Faculty Advisors: Each team must work with at least two senior mentors. One of the senior mentors must be a faculty member. One mentor should be based in the humanities or social sciences (for example, law, economics, sociology, public policy), and one from any other discipline including, but not limited to, science, engineering, social sciences, medicine, and law. Additional faculty members may also be listed as faculty advisors. One faculty member must be designated as the primary faculty advisor. She or he is ultimately responsible for the official registration of the team, the team roster, and payment of team fees.
     • Advisors: In addition to the required roles above, teams are encouraged to recruit non-faculty advisors. These can include postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers, as well as current or former policymakers, government officials, legal advisors, entrepreneurs, or members of non-governmental organizations, regulatory agencies or funding bodies.
     • Questions? This is an experimental track, so please contact us at policypractices@igem.org if you have any questions or concerns about participation and team requirements.
   • Project Submissions:

     Team submissions are required to convey (1) the project inspiration, (2) clearly articulated question(s) the project proposes to address, (3) detailed method(s) used (and their assumptions), (4) discussion of the challenges encountered in pursuing this work, (5) an explanation of who the project findings should be of interest to and why, and (6) an explanation of how the approach(es) might be adapted and scaled for others to use.

     These questions should be addressed in the following ways, in addition to the standard wiki, poster and presentation requirements for all iGEM teams. [Please note that these requirements are subject to revision until medal criteria are announced]:

     • A 2-page executive summary (that can reference additional resources on your wiki)
     • A 3-minute video that is accessible to an interested lay audience
     • any other formats you think can help iGEM teams and the broader community understand and interact with your work. This could be anything from an educational handbook, a software tool, a report, or a policy brief. We encourage you to be creative and to think about platforms that can be broadly shared and adapted.
   • Parts: Teams in the policy & practices division will not receive a copy of the 2014 distribution. They are not required to perform wet-lab work or to deposit new BioBricks in the Registry. Teams that do wish to receive a distribution copy of the parts registry must request one from policypractices@igem.org, and be affiliated with a university or community laboratory. Teams that do wish to use and submit a new part must adhere to safety and iGEM submission guidelines.

7. Software:

   • Software teams please see the Software requirements page .
If your team is participating in the Software Division, you must make tools for use with standard BioBrick parts. Software tools must be available as open source projects on the iGEM servers. See more information on the Software Tools page