Philosophy Behind the iGEM 2020 Virtual Giant Jamboree
by iGEM HQ
Each year since iGEM began, our community has gathered in-person to marvel at and celebrate the achievements of the teams in engineering biological solutions for global challenges and building the field of synthetic biology. Our in-person gatherings provided a wealth of novel opportunities for conversation, and fostered an easy and candid exchange of ideas and opinions, encouraged by the simple fact that everyone had left their offices and campuses behind.
This year our community is gathering together, but with a crucial difference: we needed to find a way to capture the brilliance and beauty of our former gatherings in a virtual setting. We’ve spoken with many people in the iGEM community – team members, instructors, judges, committee members, board members, sponsors, observers, iGEM Ambassadors, and iGEM alumni – and have looked to many models of virtual gatherings for inspiration. We would like to share with you what we’ve learned, and our thoughts on how the iGEM community is overcoming the challenges of this exceptional year, and indeed how the iGEM community can and will move forward, strengthened by our collective experience.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we had anticipated that 2020 would be the last year of the old-style iGEM and that 2021 would bring in major changes in many directions. We had worked on new ideas through 2018 and 2019, and had held an internal meeting in February 2020 with staff and chairs of all the committees. In brief, the old-style iGEM had become obsolete and needed to change.
When the pandemic hit, we began to implement some of the changes we had planned for iGEM in a much shorter time frame than anticipated. These changes include the new requirements for team videos, the expanded use of online platforms for interactions, and introducing the Sustained Development Goals (SDGs) as a focus for collaboration that teams could continue to build upon in future years.
Our overriding goal has been to navigate the challenges of this year and remain strong enough to implement more of the changes iGEM needs. And so, we’ve made a number of decisions to make the iGEM 2020 season, including the iGEM Virtual Giant Jamboree, as rewarding and enriching as possible for as many iGEMers as possible.
Waaaaay More than “just a zoom meeting”
We will have a 9-day Virtual Giant Jamboree in November, covering two weekends and the week in-between, and focusing on four aspects of iGEM: Competition, Community, Contribution, and Celebration. The first weekend for opening Keynotes, team presentations, and judge-team interactions. The second weekend will include a new program focused on linking the iGEM projects to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), closing Keynotes, and the most amazing Awards Ceremony and Celebration possible.
The week in-between will be open for many, many workshops and social events, some organized by teams, some by iGEM committees and staff, some by iGEM Ambassadors and After iGEM, and some by iGEM partners and sponsors. We will even have events organized by the new iGEM Entrepreneurship Program Innovation Community (EPIC) that connects teams who want to build upon the proofs of concept tested during the competition with mentors, training opportunities, and investors to help them turn their prototypes into innovative products so the world beyond iGEM can benefit from safe and responsible biological systems for sustainable agriculture, affordable and accessible healthcare, and preservation of the environment.
Greater Team-Judge Connections, Global Coverage, and Support for Judges
This year, 249 teams have signed up for the iGEM Competition and we anticipate having over 250 judges. We’ve expanded our judging pool to secure an international panel, with 40% from North America, 32% from Europe, 19% from Asia, 7% from Latin America, and 2% from Africa, reflecting the regional distribution of the applicant pool. We’ve also reduced the number of teams that each judge will review so that the judges will have more time to focus on each team, and the teams will have more interactions with the judges.
We’ve expanded support for the iGEM judges by creating a new Judging Corps Committee (JCC), responsible for training the judges and working with iGEM HQ and the Executive Judging Committee (EJC) to support the judges prior to and during the Virtual Giant Jamboree. The judge training videos prepared together by the JCC and EJC are available online through the iGEM Video Universe. The important work of the JCC allows the EJC to focus more on creating the judging program, assigning judges to the teams, and defining the criteria for medals.
New Medal Criteria, Special Prizes, and Support for Teams
We’ve modified the medal criteria for this year’s competition to better reflect the reality of how teams are able to work during a global pandemic. Every team is eligible to win any medal, regardless of whether or not they have access to a lab. For the first time in iGEM’s history, no lab work is required for teams to be recognized for their accomplishments, and no part submissions are required. Opening up the medal criteria will highlight and celebrate the different types of work that do not necessarily revolve around the lab.
We’ve engineered progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by introducing the Best Sustainable Development Impact Award, which is a call to action for teams to integrally address the environmental, social, and economic challenges of our world. And we’ve continued our progress in building an open and welcoming scientific community by introducing the Inclusivity Award to recognize exceptional efforts to include people with diverse identities in scientific research.
The iGEM Safety and Security Committee, together with the Human Practices Committee and iGEM Headquarters, has provided special guidance to help teams meet the challenges of working safely, securely, and responsibly during the global pandemic. Using the live SARS-CoV-2 virus (the causative agent of COVID-19) was prohibited, and teams whose projects focused on diagnostic, therapeutic or vaccines connected to this disease worked closely with the Safety and Security Committee. In addition, teams were provided with practical approaches to avoid endangering team members, or anyone else in their community, while conducting Human Practices work.
Opening iGEM for Greater Participation
We’ve fast-tracked our plans for increasing online participation in iGEM. To spearhead this effort, we hired a Director of Video and Remote Participation (VRT) and created a new VRT Committee. Together with iGEM HQ and the iGEM Ambassadors, they have been working around the clock to select and develop the best possible online platforms so that anyone, anywhere in the world, can join the iGEM community at the Virtual Giant Jamboree to witness and celebrate the accomplishments of this year’s teams.
As a community, we’ve made tremendous progress in making iGEM accessible to as many people around the world as possible – from the first online launch of the season with the iGEM 2020 Opening Weekend Festival and the first iGEM Global Meet-up, to establishing the iGEM Video Universe and creating interactive spaces for the Virtual Giant Jamboree, including poster sessions, committee tables, sponsor booths, networking events, community gatherings, and more.
Video Deliverables and Online Poster Hall
2020 will be the first year where each and every iGEM team has created two video deliverables – a Project Promotion Video and a Team Presentation Video. The Project Promotion Videos are ‘sneak-peeks’ that showcase the team’s project and are already available online through the iGEM Video Universe. Team Presentation Videos will be shown at the Virtual Giant Jamboree, where the iGEM Judges will be evaluating each team’s work, and everyone – fellow iGEMers, family, friends, instructors, mentors, sponsors, and members of the general public – will be able to see the brilliant and innovative work of the iGEM 2020 teams.
Every iGEM team will also present their work at their designated space in the online poster hall – a virtual space encompassing three 8-story buildings, where people can view posters and interact with the iGEM teams. Just as in a traditional poster hall, people will be able to comment on the posters, ask questions of the team members, and discuss the work of the teams with other participants.
In closing, many of you reading this post are seasoned iGEMers yourselves. You know what it takes to carry out an iGEM project, and can probably only imagine what this year’s teams must have experienced as they carried out their iGEM project amidst a global pandemic. We are all excited to see how the iGEM 2020 teams will surprise us with their work!
