Requirements

Please note that the information on this page is information migrated from 2014.igem.org.
iGEM HQ is currently working on updating this information for the iGEM 2015 competition.
When that process has been completed, this notice will be removed.

General Requirements

All iGEM teams must meet the following requirements to participate in the 2015 competition.

1. Team Composition:

   iGEM teams consist primarily of undergraduate students at an accredited college or university. Teams may also be composed of high school students or community lab members. The team must be supervised by at least two instructors one of whom must be a faculty member. Both instructors must serve as primary contacts and are responsible for the official registration of the team, the team roster, certifying the safety form, and payment of team fees.

   Why?

   Team section:

   • Undergraduate Teams: all student team members must be 23 or younger on March 31, 2015. Graduate students, postdocs, and others are welcome as team advisors or instructors on undergraduate teams.
   • Overgraduate Teams: any team that has one or more team member older than 23 years of age on March 31, 2015.

   We also strongly recommend the following:

   • Teams should have between 8 and 15 student members.
     Why?
   • Teams larger than 15 should consider splitting into two teams and taking advantage of the multiple team discount. This also gives a larger team adequate wiki space and presentation time to cover more work generated by more team members.

2. Team Structure:

   One team pays one registration fee, has one presentation at the Jamboree, one poster, and is eligible for one set of prizes. 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 $4000 USD team registration fee is required for each team.
   • Giant Jamboree attendance fees: attendance fees for the Giant Jamboree in Boston are $695 per attendee.
   • For more information about fees see the Fees 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. All team pages, images, documents and code must be hosted on the 2015.igem.org server. We preserve all iGEM content on our own servers so future teams can learn from what you have done. 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:
   • BioBrick-compatible (RFC10) 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.

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 2011 Imperial College Acknowledgements page for an example of excellent attributions.

7. Safety:

   iGEM teams must act responsibly in the lab, and must use good judgment when choosing project topics and designing their projects. Teams must follow all biosafety rules of their host institutions, and all biosafety laws of their countries/regions.

   All teams must complete certain safety forms (exact requirements will be announced at the end of February). In addition, all teams should review the organisms and genetic parts they plan to use, looking for potential safety concerns. Organisms and parts that appear on the White List may be used freely. If you want to use an organism/part that is not on the White List, you must submit a Check-In.

   The team PI (principal investigator) is responsible for supervising the team's laboratory work, for ensuring that all organisms and parts are used safely, and for attesting to the accuracy of the final Safety Form contents. Visit the Safety page for more details and (tentative) deadlines.

   iGEM teams are not permitted to use Risk Group 3 or 4 organisms, or to work in Safety Level 3 or 4 laboratories.
   We encourage teams to find safer substitutes for these dangerous organisms, or to choose alternate project topics.

   Why?

8. Project Presentation:

   All team members are encouraged to attend the Giant Jamboree in September 2015. 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.

9. Positive Contribution:

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

Additional Requirements