We are officially introducing the option Two-Phase Projects to the iGEM Competition. Your project can be divided in 2 phases, and work can be distributed across two years. At the end of each phase, your team attends a Jamboree to present and celebrate your work, compete for medals and prizes, and get critical feedback from an international panel of expert judges. This is the first time a single project has the chance to earn more than one medal!

Phase I: Design and Model

Teams spend the first phase focusing on designing and modeling their projects. Some examples of areas to focus on can include:

Theoretical design of the project
Experimental design
Product design and entrepreneurship
Software development
Hardware design
Registry curation
Human Practices

At the end of the season, the team presents the work at a "Phase I Evaluation", competes for medals and prizes, and gets critical feedback from an international panel of expert judges to take into Phase II.

Phase II: Build and Test

Teams spend the second phase building and testing their synthetic biology project in the lab. With more time in the lab during Phase II, teams can focus on:

Measurement
Statistical analysis of results
Executing more Design-Build-Test cycles in a year
Building and characterizing BioBrick contributions
Proof of concept
Human Practices

At the end of the season, the team presents the results at the "Phase II Evaluation" to compete for medals and prizes. Teams that opt for Two-Phase projects will benefit from a multi-year discount when registering for iGEM 2021. More details will be provided in 2021.

Why Two Phases?

We are engineering biology. Much like in an engineering project, a design phase is crucial to your projects.

Imagine building a bridge. You don’t just start by putting pieces together from scratch and then troubleshoot it along the way. Before any work is done on the actual construction, engineers and architects spend months on developing a project plan, researching the site, rationalizing what is needed, making sure that each concept is functional and that everything will work as it should. After the design project is submitted and reviewed, the next phase, construction, can start. Sometimes, when seeing the final bridge, we forget the design phase that made its foundation. With Two-Phase projects, we want to give teams flexibility to spend enough time and effort to focus on both of these equally important phases of biological engineering.

What does this mean for me and my team?

More flexibility:

You do not need to opt for doing a Two-Phase Project during your registration. You can make this decision later on in the season.
This new option of doing an iGEM project extends your project’s timeframe to 2-years while still participating equally in both years.
Your members could change, but both groups would live the same iGEM experience - including fun activities during the year, iGEM sponsor resources, project delivery, evaluation and celebration of your work at a Jamboree, and competing for the same set of medals and prizes.
You may define the two phases for your own team. No matter the phase your project is in - it will be judged appropriately on the progress you’ve achieved.
You are not required to continue with Phase II of the project. Your Phase I effort still potentially lays a foundation for future iGEM teams to expand.
Teams that opt for Two-Phase projects will benefit from a multi-year discount when registering for iGEM 2021. More details will be provided in 2021.

Competition/New/Two Phase Projects

Two Phase Projects

Phase I: Design and Model

Phase II: Build and Test

Why Two Phases?

What does this mean for me and my team?

iGEM Foundation

Contact

Quicklinks

Keep in touch!