Medals allow us to celebrate the accomplishments of our iGEM teams. Through medals, we highlight the underlying principles of iGEM: respect, community, and honesty.

The three levels of medals, from lowest to highest are Bronze, Silver, and Gold, with each medal building upon the next. Through the bronze we appreciate the hard work and effort you have put into participating in iGEM, the silver celebrates your accomplishments, and with the gold we delight in your excellence.

We do not limit the numbers of each medal and all teams can earn a medal; teams are only competing with themselves to achieve the medal criteria.

Updates for 2020

Due to COVID-19, we understand that many campuses and laboratories are closed. We have updated the medal criteria to be open and flexible, and therefore more appropriate for this year. Teams can achieve a Bronze, Silver, or Gold medal without doing laboratory work. We have also added new ways for teams to show excellence in their work for the Gold medal.

What if we can access our laboratory?

If your team has access to the laboratory this year, you can still submit your laboratory work for medal criteria. In particular, you can: contribute new data to an existing Part (Bronze #4), design and build a new Part and show that it works as expected (Silver #1), or make a new Part that improves the function of an existing Part (Gold #2). Lab work could also be used in your modeling work (Gold #3) and to help show that your whole system works (Gold #4).

New for 2020: Medals Guidance

Many of the changes we’ve made to the criteria have opened up the way in which teams can achieve that criteria. With more open criteria, we wanted to provide teams with some guidance, ideas, and suggestions for how to think about and approach each criteria.

Working with our Committees, we will continue to update this guidance as the season progresses based on feedback and/or questions we receive from teams.

Celebrating Your Work

A Bronze medal is awarded to those teams that have participated in iGEM 2020, presented their work, and made a contribution for future teams.

A Silver medal is awarded to those teams that have addressed these key pillars of an iGEM project: engineering success, collaboration, and human practices.

A Gold medal is awarded to those teams that have shown excellence in multiple areas beyond the Silver medal.

Convincing the Judges

Through your work and documentation, it is your responsibility to convince the judges that your team has achieved each of the medal criteria you are working towards.

Be clear and direct when you present your work. Your judges will review the information you provide on your wiki pages, poster, video presentations, and Judging Form (including any Part pages you may add there). Your judges will also interact with your team and ask your team questions during the Virtual Giant Jamboree. The judges will use all of this information to inform their evaluations and decisions.

Documenting Your Work on Required Wiki Pages

For the medal criteria, you must document your work on the Required URLs as shown in the table below. For your own pages, please replace "YourTeamName" with your team name to find the page on your wiki.

When working with Parts, you must also document your work on the relevant Part's Pages on the Registry.

Medal Criteria

Bronze	All criteria must be met
Number	Name	Explanation	Guidance (New for 2020)
1	Competition Deliverables	Complete the following Competition Deliverables: • #1 Wiki • #2 Poster • #3 Presentation Video • #4 Project Promotion Video • #5 Judging Form	For guidelines for each of the deliverable, please see the links below: • Wiki • Poster • Presentation Video • Project Promotion Video • Judging Form You can also directly navigate to these links from the Competition Deliverables page (https://2020.igem.org/Competition/Deliverables).
2	Attributions	Describe what work your team members did and what other people did for your project. Required URL: 2020.igem.org/Team:YourTeamName/Attributions	Some questions to help guide you: • What did each team member work on during your project? • Did you get help from outside sources, such as technicians or other faculty members? Notes: • This is not about literature citations (put these throughout your wiki!)
3	Project Description	Describe how and why you chose your iGEM project. Required URL: 2020.igem.org/Team:YourTeamName/Description	Some questions to help guide you: • Why do you believe your project is a useful application of synthetic biology? • What are your project goals and how will you achieve them? • What work outside or inside of iGEM inspired your project? Notes: • You can also describe how COVID-19 impacted your project
4	Contribution	Make a useful contribution for future iGEM teams. Required URL: 2020.igem.org/Team:YourTeamName/Contribution	Some ways to achieve this include: • Add new documentation to an existing Part on that Part's Registry page: • This could be new information learned from literature • This could be new data collected from laboratory experiments • Build upon an existing software or hardware tool • Document troubleshooting that would be helpful to future teams • Create a 3D printed piece of hardware and document how to make it We invite you to also think outside of these areas for your contribution.
Silver	All Bronze criteria must be met, plus all Silver criteria must be met
Number	Name	Explanation	Guidance (New for 2020)
1	Engineering Success	Demonstrate engineering success in at least one aspect of your project. This achievement should be distinct from your Contribution for Bronze. Required URL: 2020.igem.org/Team:YourTeamName/Engineering	Engineering success can be achieved by making an effort to follow the engineering design cycle: Research → Imagine → Design → Build → Test → Learn → Improve → Research... • We invite you to think about ways to tackle and solve one or more of your project's problems and use synthetic biology tools to generate expected results. • If you are unable to get into a lab, how would you design your experiments, evaluate the outcome, deal with unexpected results, and plan further steps? Notes: • For teams who can get into lab, you can design and build a new Part and show that it works as expected (documentation must be on the Part's Pages on the Registry)
2	Collaboration	Collaborate with one (or more) 2020 iGEM team(s) in a meaningful way. Required URL: 2020.igem.org/Team:YourTeamName/Collaborations	Some ways to achieve this include: • Mentor a team (or be mentored by a team) • Troubleshoot a project • Host a (virtual) meetup • Model/simulate a system • Validate a software/hardware solution to a synthetic biology problem We invite you to also think outside of these areas for your collaboration. Visit the Collaborations page to post and find collaborations. Notes: • This can be a one-way collaboration where one team benefits from another team • Simply filling out a survey for a team is not enough to demonstrate a significant interaction.
3	Human Practices	Explain how you have determined your work is responsible and good for the world. Required URL: 2020.igem.org/Team:YourTeamName/Human_Practices	Some questions to help guide you: • What values—environmental, social, moral, scientific, or other—did you have in mind when designing your project? • Which resources or communities did you consult to ensure those are appropriate values in the context of your project? • What evidence do you have to show that your project is responsible and good for the world? Notes: • You should draw on personal reflections, background research, and/or engagement with communities relevant to your project. Please visit the Human Practices Hub for more information on how to carry out Human Practices work.
4	Proposed Implementation	Explain how you would implement your project in the real world. Required URL: 2020.igem.org/Team:YourTeamName/Implementation	Some questions to help guide you: • Who are your proposed end users? • How do you envision others using your project? • How would you implement your project in the real world? • What are the safety aspects you would need to consider? • What other challenges would you need to consider? Notes: • Teams already think about some of these issues for the Safety Form • This will encompass engineering, safety, and implementation
Gold	All Bronze and Silver criteria must be met, plus at least two (2) Gold criteria must be met
Number	Name	Explanation	Guidance (New for 2020)
1	Integrated Human Practices	Demonstrate how your team responded to your human practices reflections, research, and/or engagement. You should show how your activities impacted your project purpose, design and/or execution. Required URL: 2020.igem.org/Team:YourTeamName/Human_Practices	Some questions to help guide you: • How did your Human Practices work inform and shape your project at different stages? • How did your team choose to respond to your Silver medal work? How did your Silver medal Human Practices and Proposed Implementation inform your ethical, technical, safety and/or communication decisions? • How did you decide which needs or values to prioritize in your project’s design? What compromises, if any, did you choose to make and why? • How did your team “close the loop” between what was designed and what was desired? Please visit the Human Practices Hub for more information on how to carry out Human Practices work.
2	Improvement of an Existing Part	Make a new Part that improves the function of an existing Part. This improvement must be distinct from your work for Bronze and Silver medals. Team to enter the Existing Part Number and the New Part Number in their Judging Form.	Some things to consider when designing and showing your improvement: • Your experiments should be done with both the improved part and the original part as a control • The sequences of the new and existing parts must be different • Adapting the part to a different assembly standard does not count as a functional improvement • See the Measurement Hub for details on how to measure your parts • You must document the improvement on the Registry on both the existing and new part pages. See the Registry Document Parts page for instructions Notes: • This criteria was kept in as an option for teams who could get into the lab.
3	Project Modeling	Use modeling to gain insight into how your project works or should be implemented. Explain your model's assumptions, data, parameters, and results in a way that anyone could understand. Required URL: 2020.igem.org/Team:YourTeamName/Model	Some ways to achieve this include: • Deterministic, exploratory, molecular dynamic, and/or stochastic models • Explore the physical modeling of a single component within a system • Utilize mathematical modeling for predicting function of a more complex device Notes: • This could be either a new model you develop or the implementation of a model from a previous team. Please see the Software Tools page for resources that may help with your modeling.
4	Proof of Concept	Expand upon your Silver medal work for Proposed Implementation and develop a proof of concept for your project. Required URL: 2020.igem.org/Team:YourTeamName/Proof_Of_Concept	A proof of concept usually consists of experiments or prototypes that demonstrate that your project is likely to work in a relevant context. • Your Proof of Concept should reflect your project as a whole, not just a single aspect or component • Depending on your project, this criterion may require labwork. Software- or hardware-based projects may not require labwork for a successful proof of concept • All activities must follow iGEM Safety Committee rules and policies
5	Partnership	Collaborate throughout the year with at least one other 2020 iGEM team on a set of shared objectives related to both of your projects. This partnership should go beyond a Silver medal collaboration. Required URL: 2020.igem.org/Team:YourTeamName/Partnership	Some questions to help guide you: • How did your collaborative work inform and shape your project at different stages? • How did each team in the partnership benefit from the collaboration? • How did your teams work together throughout the season? Notes: Compared to the Silver Medal Collaboration criterion, partnerships should be more central to the success of both teams' projects and teams should be working together throughout the season (not a single interaction). A Partnership and the Silver Medal Collaboration may be done with the same team(s).
6	Science Communication	Develop and implement science communication, education, and/or outreach materials related to synthetic biology. All activities must follow Safety policies for Human Subjects Research. Required URL: 2020.igem.org/Team:YourTeamName/Education	Some questions to help guide you: • How did you determine the type of materials you produced? • Who is your target audience and how will your materials be used by that audience? • How will your materials encourage an open dialogue with your audience? • How did you make your materials accessible to a wider audience? Notes: • The work should be substantial and show excellence.
7	Excellence in Another Area	Demonstrate excellence in another area related to synthetic biology. Team to enter a URL in their Judging Form. The URL must be from the Team's wiki pages.	Surprise us! For this criterion, your work should be something that does not fulfill another medal criterion • The work should be substantial • The work does not have to directly relate to your project (for example, art and design, entrepreneurship, diversity and inclusion, broad synthetic biology policy, etc.) • Your wiki documentation should demonstrate the connection to synthetic biology • All activities must follow iGEM Safety Committee rules and policies

Questions?

If you have questions, please email us at judging AT igem DOT org . We love hearing from teams. Best of luck with your projects!

Judging/Medals

Medals

Updates for 2020

New for 2020: Medals Guidance

Celebrating Your Work

Convincing the Judges

Documenting Your Work on Required Wiki Pages

Medal Criteria

Bronze

All criteria must be met

Silver

All Bronze criteria must be met, plus all Silver criteria must be met

Gold

All Bronze and Silver criteria must be met, plus at least two (2) Gold criteria must be met

iGEM Foundation

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