Human Practices

Silver Medal Criterion #2

Explain how you have determined your work is responsible and good for the world.


Please see the 2024 Medals Page for more information.

Best Integrated Human Practices

How does your project affect society and how does society influence the direction of your project? How might ethical considerations and stakeholder input guide your project purpose and design and the experiments you conduct in the lab? How does this feedback enter into the process of your work all through the iGEM competition? Document a thoughtful and creative approach to exploring these questions and how your project evolved in the process to compete for this award!

To compete for the Best Integrated Human Practices prize, select the prize on the judging form and describe your work on this page.


Please see the 2024 Awards Page for more information.

Overview


At iGEM we believe societal considerations should be upfront and integrated throughout the design and execution of synthetic biology projects. “Human Practices” refers to iGEM teams' efforts to actively consider how the world affects their work and their work affects the world. Through your Human Practices activities, your team should demonstrate how you have thought carefully and creatively about whether your project is responsible and good for the world. We invite you to explore issues relating (but not limited) to the ethics, safety, security, and sustainability of your project, and to show how this exploration feeds back into your project purpose, design, and execution.

Please note you can compete for the Silver Medal criterion #2 and the Best Integrated Human Practices prize with this page.

For more information, please see the Human Practices Hub.

On this page, your team should document all of your Human Practices work and activities. You should write about the Human Practices topics you considered in your project, document any activities you conducted to explore these topics (such as engaging with experts and stakeholders), describe why you took a particular approach (including referencing any work you built upon), and explain if and how you integrated takeaways from your Human Practices work back into your project purpose, design and/or execution.