KUL iGEM wiki 2019

Collaborations

Introduction

We have truly enjoyed collaborating with iGEM teams on a global scale. Meeting other iGEM teams and having the opportunity to work with them made us realize what a fantastic community we have the chance to be a part of. Check out all the collaborations we participated in below.

iGEM Aachen and iGEM Go Paris Saclay – SynBio Gone Viral

Synbio Gone Viral was a collaboration between our team and the teams of iGEM Aachen and iGEM GO Paris Saclay. With this collaboration, we aimed to organize a three-day conference for European iGEM teams and the broader public. The organization and collaboration mainly took place over Skype, as we started setting up this conference during weekly calls between all three sides. Our team developed close bonds with both the Paris and Aachen teams, and we found the collaboration a prospect that grew ever more exciting as time went on.

Since the conference took place in Leuven, logistics were mainly organized by our own team. The program for the actual conference was set up by all three collaborating teams. iGEM Aachen selected and brought speakers over from Germany, and we brought in both local and global speakers. iGEM GO Paris Saclay contributed by organizing their own workshop during the conference. In addition, GO Paris Saclay also helped to arrange the website and contributed to the T-shirts worn by the entire SynBio Gone Viral crew during the conference. The actual meeting took place from the 20th until the 22nd of September and turned out to be a massive success. In total, eleven different iGEM teams from eight different European countries attended the event. We had a blast getting to know the attending teams during the tour of the Stella Artois Brewery and the International Party we held on the closing night. They were unforgettable nights of creating lifelong memories. Once again, a massive thank you for all attending teams.

iGEM BOKU Vienna – Six Pics Challenge

We were approached by the iGEM BOKU Vienna team to participate in the “Six Pics Challenge”. The collaboration challenged us to create multiple drawings describing our iGEM project in six pictures. The final result would be a cartoon-style booklet explaining the projects of the participating iGEM teams. We had a lot of fun designing this cartoon since it forced us to explain our project in a creative and easy-to-understand manner. Before the final result was released, we had the opportunity to be beta readers and were able to provide general feedback on the structure and content of the comic through a questionnaire. We would like to thank iGEM BOKU Vienna for setting up this great collaboration! Check out the final result with this link.

iGEM UNSW Australia – Global Business Plan Collaboration

We collaborated with the iGEM team of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) on the Global Business Plan Initiative. The goal of this collaboration was to develop a straightforward business scaffold that scientists can utilize to commercialize their idea. iGEM UNSW provided us with a first basic scaffold, after which we had multiple Skype meetings to provide feedback and make adjustments. UNSW iGEM eventually combined the input from the participating iGEM teams and provided us with the final version of the scaffold. Looking back on the collaboration, we felt like we made a significant contribution to this initiative by providing input and by including region-specific elements into the scaffold. It was a pleasant collaboration with UNSW iGEM, and we would like to thank them for setting up this partnership between teams from all over the world. Read our full business plan by following this link.

iGEM Bonn - iGEM Spring Festival

We took part in the iGEM Spring Festival organized by the Bonn IGEM team at the beginning of the year. It was an incredible first encounter with the global iGEM community and an excellent opportunity to interact with multiple other iGEM teams. Fun fact: it was during this meetup that we laid the foundations for the SynBio Gone Viral collaboration with iGEM Aachen. We had so much fun that we even made a vlog of our trip to Bonn! Check out the full vlog below by clicking here.