Below are the 2020 team requirements for participating in the iGEM Competition. If you have any questions about these requirements, please email us at hq [AT] igem [DOT] org.

1.1 Team Composition and Team Roster

iGEM teams consist primarily of undergraduate students at an accredited college or university. Teams may also be composed of postgraduate students, high school students, or community lab members.

Each team has a Team Roster that must be completed by the Team Roster Freeze. The Team Roster must include everyone who is involved with the iGEM team, including professors, teachers, instructors, advisors, and the student team members. The Team Roster should be filled out as early as possible. This can be an ongoing process as some team members and advisors are added or removed, but it should be filled in to the best of your ability on the same day that you register your team.

Why is the Team Roster Important?

It determines the Team Section (see Section 1.4) for collegiate and community lab Team Kinds (see Section 1.2)
It gives iGEM HQ information about the number of participants for the 2020 season
It gives iGEM HQ the contact information for the entire team
It is used to determine who will receive iGEM participation certificates

1.2 Team Kind

In iGEM 2020, teams will register as one of three team "kinds", and each kind will have different team role requirements for the "Primary and Secondary PI" role (see Section 1.3). The rest of the roles are the same throughout the team kinds. The three team kinds are:

Collegiate:
Student team members are usually collegiate students. You may also have postgraduate students and/or high school students on the team.

High School:
Student team members are only high school students and students who will graduate high school in 2020. High School teams compete with other High School teams in the High School Track and Section.
Please see Section 1.3 below for the definition of the Primary and Secondary PI for High School Requirements.

Community Lab:
Student team members are members of a community lab. This can include anyone. Community Lab teams compete with Collegiate teams in the Traditional and Special Tracks and in the Undergraduate and Overgraduate Sections based on the team members' ages.
Please see Section 1.3 below for the definition of the Primary and Secondary PI for Community Lab Requirements

1.3 Team Roles

Similar to sports teams, team members have different roles and responsibilities on a team:

Students = Team player.
Responsible for brainstorming, choosing, and executing project idea

Primary and Secondary PI = General manager.
Individuals in a position of authority

Instructor = Head coach.
Provides day-to-day support and technical training for the team

Advisor = Assistant coach.
Provides supplementary support

Student team leader = Team captain.
Point of contact between team, PI, and iGEM HQ

Role Details

Below are more details for each Team Role. Please read through each role carefully and email us at hq AT igem DOT org with any questions.

Student role and requirements

Student team members brainstorm project ideas, choose a project idea, and build and test their chosen biological system. Students are also responsible for documenting their work and for meeting the various iGEM deadlines throughout the iGEM season (see 2020 Calendar for details).

Every student team member must do the following by the Team Roster Freeze:
- have an iGEM user account
- enter their age information
- join the online team roster
Undergraduate and Overgraduate teams have age restrictions for the student team members (see Section 1.4).

Principal investigator (PI) role and requirements

Principal investigators (PIs) are individuals in a position of authority (ex: in a university setting, he/she is authorized to have lab space, grants, and hiring privileges) who are responsible for the team. This includes the official team registration, the team roster, certifying the safety form, payment of the team’s fees, and any other official aspect of the team. Team PIs provide guidance and support throughout the season, including assistance with fundraising, lab support, and help with school bureaucracy and regulations. PIs should plan on participating in the Giant Jamboree with the team. Team PIs serve as the official points of contact for iGEM Headquarters: they must be able to receive emails and phone calls from iGEM HQ, and respond promptly.

Each team must have a Primary PI and he/she must:

have an iGEM user account (this will be required in order to register the team for iGEM 2020)

Each section has specific PI requirements:

For Collegiate teams, the primary PI must be a professor. If the team wishes to have more than one PI, the other PIs may be a post-doc or above.
For High School teams, the primary PI must be either a principal or teacher.
For Community Lab teams, the primary PI must be the director of the community lab.

High School teams and Community Lab teams may have a professor as one of their team PIs if they wish.

Instructor role and requirements

Team instructors provide day-to-day support for the team, and are aware of team activities and experimental plans. Instructors should also be responsible for the technical training of the team members in lab protocols

Instructors must:

have an iGEM user account
join the online team roster by the Team Roster Freeze

Advisor role and requirements

Team advisors include graduate students, post-graduate students, post-docs, and/or technicians who support the team.

Advisors must:

have an iGEM user account
join the online team roster by the Team Roster Freeze

Student team leader role and requirements

Student team leaders serve as the team's point of contact between the student team members and iGEM Headquarters. You may nominate up to two student team leaders per team.

Student team leaders must:

have an iGEM user account
join the online team roster by the Team Roster Freeze

1.4 Team Sections

There are three team sections in iGEM 2020:

Undergraduate Section: all student team members are age 23 or younger on March 31, 2020. This applies to both Collegiate and Community Lab Team Kinds (see Section 1.2).
Overgraduate Section: one or more student team members are older than 23 on March 31, 2020. This applies to both Collegiate and Community Lab Team Kinds (see Section 1.2).
High School Section: all student team members are high school students on March 31, 2020; includes students who graduate from high school in the spring of 2020

All teams, regardless of their section, have the opportunity to participate in the 2020 Giant Jamboree - it will be the same event for all 3 sections.

Note

Your team's section will be calculated automatically by the iGEM software based on the ages of the student members on your team roster. Be sure to include ages for all student team members, otherwise the system will default to placing your team in the Overgraduate section even if you are an Undergraduate team.

1.5 Recommendations

Based on previous competitions, we also strongly recommend the following:

Teams should have between 8 and 15 student team members.
Teams with more than 15 student team members 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 the work generated by more team members.
Teams should be gender-balanced, having approximately as many women as men on a team.
Teams should be composed of an interdisciplinary group of students from different majors and with different skill sets.

Competition/Team Requirements

1. Team Requirements