Judging/Medals

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iGEM Medals

All teams must convince the judges they have achieved each of the medal criteria. Simply ticking a box does not guarantee you will be awarded a medal.



Changes for 2019

New - No Sample Submission Required
This year, iGEM teams will not be required to submit physical samples of their DNA parts to the iGEM Registry at the end of the season. This means no sample submission is required for Silver #1 or Gold #2 criteria.

New - Type IIS Parts Fully Supported for Medals and Awards
Building upon our previous support for PhytoBricks (a Type IIS system for plant parts), iGEM teams can now create new parts following iGEM's Type IIS Standard. Your team can choose to work with either BioBrick RFC10 or Type IIS compatible parts.

New - Bronze Criterion #4: Project Inspiration and Description
We are asking teams to provide details about what inspired their projects as well as providing a brief description of their work.

Updated - Bronze Criterion #5: Characterization (Standard Tracks)
As announced last year during the Giant Jamboree, we will NOT be holding an InterLab Study for iGEM 2019. This means the 2019 teams will not be able to participate in an interlab study for this bronze medal criterion.

All teams can earn a medal. Teams can only win one medal in a given iGEM year. Teams must nominate themselves using the Judging Form. Failure to successfully complete the Judging Form will prevent the judges from evaluating your team for medals.

Please see our Judging Form information page for more details. See the Calendar for more information on iGEM deadlines.

The three levels of medals, from lowest to highest are Bronze, Silver, and Gold. We do not limit the numbers of each medal. Teams are only competing with themselves to achieve the medal criteria.

Medal

Explanation

Criteria for Standard Tracks

Criteria for Special Tracks
Bronze
All Criteria must be met
1 Registration and Giant Jamboree Attendance Register for iGEM, have a great iGEM season, and attend the Giant Jamboree.
2 Competition Deliverables Convince the judges that you have completed the following Competition Deliverables:
#1 Wiki
#2 Poster
#3 Presentation
#4 Judging Form
3 Attributions Convince the judges that you have completed Competition Deliverable #5 Attributions.

Please note: This requirement is not about citing literature references. Attributions is about describing what work your team did and what other people did for your project.
4 NEW FOR 2019: Project Inspiration and Description Convince the judges that you have completed Competition Deliverable #8 Project Inspiration and Description.

On your Project Description page, document how and why you chose your iGEM project, and in a few sentences describe how you will achieve your goal(s). Refer to work outside or inside of iGEM that inspired your project, how you selected your project goal(s), and why you thought your project was a useful application of synthetic biology.
5 Characterization / Contribution Updated For 2019: Characterization - Standard Tracks

Convince the judges that you have added quantitative experimental characterization data to an existing Part from the Registry of Standard Biological Parts.

  • Clearly document the experimental characterization on the Part's Main Page on the Registry (see the Registry Document Parts page for instructions).
  • This existing part may be a Basic or Composite part and must be BioBrick RFC10 or Type IIS compatible.
  • The part that you are characterizing must NOT be from a 2019 part number range.
  • It is acceptable to add new data to an already highly characterized part.
  • Sample submission is not required.

See the Measurement Hub for more information, resources, and examples of previous teams' exemplary work. 		Contribution - Special Tracks

Document on your team wiki at least one new substantial contribution to the iGEM community that showcases a project related to BioBricks. This contribution should be central to your project and equivalent in difficulty to characterizing a BioBrick Part.
Silver
All Bronze criteria must be met, plus all Silver criteria below must be met
1 Validated Part / Validated Contribution Validated Part - Standard Tracks

Convince the judges that at least one new BioBrick Part of your own design that is related to your project works as expected.

  • Clearly document the experimental characterization on that Part's Main Page on the Registry (see the Registry Document Parts page for instructions).
  • This new part may be a Basic or Composite part.
  • This new part must be BioBrick RFC10 or Type IIS compatible.
  • If your team is creating a new part for Gold #2, this part must be different from the new part documented for Gold #2.
  • Sample submission is not required.

See the Measurement Hub for more information, resources, and examples of previous teams' exemplary work. 		Validated Contribution - Special Tracks

Convince the judges that something you created (art & design, hardware, software, etc.) performs its intended function. Provide thorough documentation of this validation on your team wiki.
2 Collaboration Convince the judges you have significantly worked with one (or more) currently registered 2019 iGEM team(s) in a meaningful way. For example, mentor a team (or be mentored by a team), characterize a part, troubleshoot a project, host a meetup, model/simulate a system, or validate a software/hardware solution to a synthetic biology problem.

Document your collaboration in detail on your wiki. Judges will look at your collaborator's wiki to see what they say about your interaction. Simply filling out a survey for a team is not enough to demonstrate a significant interaction.
3 Human Practices Convince the judges you have thought carefully and creatively about whether your work is responsible and good for the world. Document how you have investigated these issues, how you engaged with communities relevant to your goals, why you chose this approach, what you have learned, and the potential impact of your project’s success.

See the Human Practices Hub for more information and examples of previous teams' exemplary work. Please note that surveys will not fulfill this criteria unless you follow scientifically valid methods.
Gold
All Bronze and Silver criteria must be met, plus at least two (2) Gold criteria below must be met
1 Integrated Human Practices Expand on your silver medal activity by demonstrating how you have integrated the investigated issues into the purpose, design, and/or execution of your project. Document your process and describe how your human practices work informed and shaped your project at different stages.

See the Human Practices Hub for more information and examples of previous teams' exemplary work.
2 Improve a Previous Part / Project Improve a Previous Part - Standard Tracks

Convince the judges that you have created a new BioBrick Part that has a functional improvement of an existing BioBrick Part. You must perform experiments with both parts to demonstrate this improvement.

  • Clearly document the quantitative experimental characterization data on the Part's Main Page on the Registry for both the existing and new parts (see the Registry Document Parts page for instructions).
  • The new part must be BioBrick RFC10 or Type IIS compatible.
  • The sequences of the new and existing parts must be different. Making an existing part compatible to RFC10 or Type IIS is not sufficient to fulfill this criterion.
  • The existing part must NOT be from your 2019 part number range.
  • The existing part must be different from the part you used in Bronze #5.
  • The new part you create must be different from the new part documented in Silver #1.
  • Sample submission is not required.

See the Measurement Hub for more information, resources, and examples of previous teams' exemplary work. 		Improve a Previous Project - Special Tracks

Improve the function of an existing iGEM project (that your current team did not originally create) and document your achievement on your team wiki.
3 Model Your Project Convince the judges that your project's design and/or implementation is based on insight you have gained from modeling. This could be either a new model you develop or the implementation of a model from a previous team. You must thoroughly document your model's contribution to your project on your team's wiki, including assumptions, relevant data, model results, and a clear explanation of your model that anyone can understand.

The model should impact your project design in a meaningful way. Modeling may include, but is not limited to, deterministic, exploratory, molecular dynamic, and stochastic models. Teams may also explore the physical modeling of a single component within a system or utilize mathematical modeling for predicting function of a more complex device.
4 Demonstration of Your Work Convince the judges that your engineered system works.

Your engineered system has to work under realistic conditions. Your system must comply with all rules and policies approved by the iGEM Safety Committee. Your system can derive from or make functional a previous iGEM project by your team or by another team. For multi-component projects, the judges may consider the function of individual components.
Standard Tracks Special Tracks

Helpful Resources

As you work on your project, you may find the following pages useful to help answer questions about the Competition, Human Practices, Measurement, and Safety:

iGEM Foundation

The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of synthetic biology, education and competition, and the development of an open community and collaboration. Visit us at igem.org


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