BioModels “Model of the year” competition 2023

BioModels has launched a new competition for early career researchers, to recognize emerging leaders in systems biology modelling, identify exciting modelling research and promote reproducibility and good modelling practice.

Am I eligible?

The competition is aimed at early career researchers, including but not limited to PhD students, postdocs, staff scientists, and research assistants, who have published a peer-reviewed scientific manuscript with a mathematical model within the last two years (since 1 Jan 2021).

PIs, group leaders, lecturers, and professors are not eligible. 

How do I enter the competition?

1) Submit your model to a public (FAIR) model repository

  • Submit model codes to open standard repositories such as BioModels, Physiome, and CellCollective and make them publicly available.
  • You can submit your model code in any format (e.g. Matlab, Python, C++, R, Julia Scripts, COPASI, etc). However, submitting the models encoded in community standards including COMBINE standards (e.g. SBML, CellML, OMEX) would be advantageous. 

2) Submit your application using the online form

  • A short summary/abstract of your model, highlighting its scientific outcome, novelty and impact (max.500 words)
  • Citation and link to the published manuscript (Open access) or a PDF

The deadline for submissions is 20 January 2023. 

What can I win?

  • Winners will share £1000 award money.
  • They will also receive certificates of excellence.
  • Winners will be invited to write a short blog (2-page max) about their models to be published and promoted on the BioModels platform.
  • The jury will aim to publish a piece entitled “Model of the year 2023” in a leading systems biology journal highlighting the winners’ work.
     

How will the winners be decided?

The jury panel will evaluate the abstracts and select between 4 and 10 BioModels of the year.  Criteria:

  • Scientific merit. Our expert jury panel will evaluate the abstracts on scientific merit.
  • Model reproducibility. Our curators will evaluate the model’s reproducibility. Only reproducible models are eligible.
  •  Community standard. Encoding models in community standards when possible is advantageous.

The competition was officially launched at ICSB2022 (https://www.icsb2022.berlin/) in Berlin, Germany. 

Further details including an FAQ, eligibility and evaluation criteria, timeline and partners are available here.

If you have questions, please email biomodels-cura@ebi.ac.uk with ‘Model of the year’ in the subject line.