Competitions – EMBL Events

EMBL is looking for scientists with artistic talent!

Are you a scientist who is interested in structural biology and bioinformatics and passionate about arts?

This is your chance to showcase your talent!

EMBL is looking for scientists with an artistic vein who can transform scientific theories into art.

What do you need to do?

Create an original piece of art representing scientific and/or societal concepts relating to a structure in the Protein Data Bank.

Need some inspiration? Look here: http://www.wwpdb.org/

If your artwork is selected, it will be hosted on www.artsteps.com, an innovative, web-based application targeted at the PDB research community.

“This art exhibition is part of the EMBL Conference: Bringing Molecular Structure to Life: 50 Years of the PDB run by our team, the Protein Data Bank in Europe. Through this project we aim to provide new interpretations of molecular structures through artwork. And this allows the introduction of complex scientific themes in a more accessible form to the general public,” explained David Armstrong, Scientific Database Curator from EMBL-EBI.

You can create your artwork using any technique or media.

And why should scientists submit their artwork?

“The exhibition will allow scientists to present their area of work or interest in a new context through the medium of art. This will also help them to think about how to communicate their work, particularly to people from a non-scientific background,” said David Armstrong.

Please bear in mind that we will need a high-resolution image of the artwork to be able to present it in the virtual exhibition.

Together with the artwork, the following data provided by you will be displayed:

Name of the submitter
Affiliation of the submitter
Research stage
Which protein the artwork is linked to
What technique/tools were used to create the final piece
Short description about the artwork.

The opening of the exhibition will take place on 13 October 2021, during the launch of the virtual conference platform for the EMBL Conference: Bringing Molecular Structure to Life: 50 Years of the PDB and will stay open for one year.

We are looking forward to getting to know the artist in you!

More information and submission details can be found on the conference website.

Win a free registration to a 2021 conference of your choice

This year didn’t quite go as planned, but we are ready to kick-start 2021 the right way. That is why we are giving away four free registrations to a 2021 conference of your choice.

How can you win?

Quite simply:

Caption this! Leave your answer on the picture of our yeast cell mascots Buddy and Holly on Instagram or Facebook. Be creative!
Or perhaps if Twitter is more your thing, reply to our tweet using #EMBLEventsCompetition and finish the sentence.

Terms and Conditions of Participation

General Conditions

By entering the competition, participants agree to the terms and conditions of participation as follows:

This competition is run by the EMBL Course and Conference Office, and is open to everyone except EMBL Staff and their family members.
The competition will run from 10 – 24 December 2020.
Participants are permitted to enter this competition more than once.
Entries submitted after 24 December 2020 will not be accepted.
Only replies to the original EMBL Events posts and tweets using the hashtag will run in the competition.
All participants must be at least 18 years old.
Any application that does not meet these criteria will not be eligible.
This competition is not endorsed, sponsored, or administered by Facebook or Instagram. Facebook and Instagram are not in any way responsible for entrants or participants.
Your entry to this competition constitutes your agreement to allow your name and country of residence to be published and shared for an unlimited number of times on the EMBL social media channels, and may be used for other purposes at the discretion of EMBL’s Course and Conference Office.
By entering, participants agree to grant EMBL’s Course and Conference Office the rights to use their submission/comments/caption on the EMBL Events’ social media channels, blog, email campaigns and promotional materials for an unlimited number of times.
By entering, participants warrant that their entry materials are original and do not infringe on any third party’s rights.
By entering, participants release EMBL and the members of the jury from any liability for any incorrect information, loss, claim, or damage of any kind arising from or in connection with the competition or any prize won. EMBL shall have the right to verify, in its sole judgment, winner eligibility.
Decisions of EMBL shall be final and binding

2. Prizes
Facebook and Instagram contest: 2 registrations for a 2021 conference of choice.
Twitter contest: 2 registrations for a 2021 conference.
Event listing of confirmed events can be found on our website.
The free registrations are not transferable to conferences past 2021 or to another person.

3. Winner Selection

The EMBL Course and Conference Office will select the winners from all comments posted on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The winners are selected by the EMBL Events marketing team.
The winners will be contacted by the EMBL Course and Conference Office via the social media channel they used for their entry. They will have 2 weeks to respond, otherwise another winner will be selected.
The winners will be made public on or before January 25th.

The lonely yeast cell

We need your help to name Buddy’s bud! Head to our Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages and write your name suggestions in the comments. EMBL Events will choose the best name on 8th April 🙂

#NameBuddysBud

Once upon a time there lived a yeast cell called Buddy
Who was loved and cared for by everybody
He lived in a palace of glass and steel
Right on top of a big green hill.

He loved to dress up, and play and travel
And was always ready for a nice warm cuddle.
But one thing bothered Buddy at night
When the palace staff all left the site.

He felt alone and scared in the dark
And couldn’t wait for the day’s first spark.
He was a cutie, slightly chubby
Yellow, green and purple, soft and fluffy.

He visited places all the time,
Even once pursued a crater climb.
He longed for someone just like him,
But thought the chances were quite slim.

As time passed by, the thought remained,
But no solution came to his lonely brain.
The pressure soon became too much
He grew so round he could hardly budge!

Soon he couldn’t walk or move,
So he just lay down, stuck in the groove.
Early next morning, he yawned and groaned
And suddenly his other side moaned.

There were four limbs, a belly and head,
That smiled at him and mischievously said:
“Good morning, how are you today?
What a wonderful place you have to play”

And suddenly Buddy understood,
His weight, his size, his changing mood.
He had his longed-for friend at last!
“But what shall I call him?” Buddy asks…

EMBL bag around the world competition – win €350!!!

Have you attended an event at the EMBL Advanced Training Centre since it opened in March 2010 and kept your welcome bag as a souvenir? If the answer is yes, you have the chance to join a fun project and win a cash prize! Just post a picture of the EMBL or EMBO bag in any location around the world using the hashtag #EMBLbag and @emblevents, or send your photo to emblbag@embl.de to enter the competition. Be sure to include the location in your post, and you’re in the running for a chance to win €350 for 1^st place, €150 for 2^nd place, and €50 for 3^rd place! See terms and conditions below for more details.

Some of the entries from our 2013 competition – do you think you can do better?

Bag around the world competition – Terms and Conditions

Your Picture

The picture must be submitted either by using the hashtag #EMBLbag and handle @EMBLevents on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, or by submitting via the e-mail address emblbag@embl.de. We encourage creativity and ideally, it should be possible to recognise the location in which the picture was taken without any captions. The EMBL bag should be clearly visible on the picture.

Conditions of Participation

This competition is run by the EMBL Course and Conference Office, and is open to everyone except EMBL Staff or family members. Participants are permitted to enter this competition more than once. Entries submitted after 31 December 2019 will not be accepted.

All participants must be at least 18 years old.

Any application that does not meet these criteria will not be eligible.

By entering the competition, participants agree to the terms and conditions of participation and the following:

Your entry to this competition constitutes your agreement to allow your photo (your name and country of residence) to be published and shared for an unlimited number of times on EMBL social media channels, and may be used for other purposes at the discretion of EMBL’s Course and Conference Office.
Participants retain ownership and all other rights to future use of their photos.
By entering, participants warrant that his or her entry materials are original, and do not infringe on any third party’s rights.
By entering, participants release EMBL and the members of the jury from any liability for any incorrect information, loss, claim or damage of any kind arising from or in connection with the photo competition or any prize won. EMBL shall have the right to verify, in its sole judgement, winner eligibility.
Decisions of EMBL shall be final and binding.

Copyright and photo publishing

By submitting the picture you agree that EMBL receives the right to use the picture, your name and country of residence for the purposes of this competition. This includes, but is not limited to, making the picture available electronically on internet sites and adapting it where required for technical reasons.

All pictures will be published on one or more EMBL Events social media platforms (Facebook, Blog, Twitter, Instagram) and will be freely accessible to the general public. You agree that we publish your name (but not your e-mail address) alongside your picture.

Prize

1^st prize is a cash prize of €350.

2^nd prize is a cash prize of €100

3^rd prize is a cash prize of €50.

Winner Selection

The EMBL Course and Conference Office will shortlist the best photos and the winner will be selected from these pictures by an online voting process which will take place between 3 February and 17 February 2020. The winners will be selected based on the number of votes received. Any entries suspected by the organisers of obtaining votes in an immoral manner (for example buying votes) will be disqualified from the competition. Voters may only vote once per entry per social media platform. The winners who have collected the most votes for his/her picture, will be announced on the competition website and on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The winner will be contacted by the EMBL Course and Conference Office to request bank details for a bank transfer, and shall receive their prize within two weeks after that.

Event Advent Challenge 2018

Every year we embark on a quest to encrypt our events in senseless images for our event advent competition and it was overwhelming to see that so many of our Facebook followers sent us emails with the correct answers last year. The five winners were notified yesterday and we look forward to welcoming them at one of our events this year. We thank everyone else for their time and engagement and wish them more luck in the next competition.

And for everyone who missed what it was all about, here is the artwork that got so many people having to refresh their Facebook feed repeatedly in December. For a complete list of our 2019 events, please visit our website.