Team:MADRID UCM/Awards
Awards
Every work should be recognized. From the design of our project to the final presentation in the Giant Jamboree, 4C_Fuels project has been recognized with different distinctions. In this page you will find the most relevant awards our project has received.
Winners of the Hackathon-UCM Startup Contest 2020
Back in autumun 2020 we were thinking about how to become 4C_Fuels a reality. In that moment we have already decided to participate in iGEM. From 26th to 29th of November 2020 we took part in a Startup Hackathon organized by our university, where more tan 200 students with many different backgrounds presented a project idea.
During these days we focused on the different bussines model possibilites of a project like ours. We worked really hard to overcome the limitations that designing an entrepreneurship strategy in a highly technological sector as is synthetic biology.Eventually all of our efforts were payed when we were selected among the 3 finalist of the contest and eventually granted with first prize of the hackathon. This was our first contact with the entrepreneurship and bussiness world that later become really important to shape our project proposal.
iGEM Impact Grant
During summer 2021 iGEM Foundation announced new grant opportunities for iGEM teams. AMong them, the impact grants looked to help funding those iGEM projects aims to be impactful, technically ambitious and with the aim to achieve their intended goals for during 2021 iGEM competition time span.
We applied to this grant and some time after that our project was selected together with other 90 iGEM projects from more than 200 applications. This grant not only allowed us to buy part of the materials and sequencing services our project required, but also served as a recognition to our project design. Definetely receiving the iGEM impact grant motivated our team to double our efforts in and outside the lab.
Gold Medal Award
After all, we decided to take part within the Jambroee Event organized in Zaragoza. The iGEM road is always long and at that time part of our team was lacking motivation about the project. Due to some internal issues that happened during wiki development and project defense, we were not expecting receiving a good feedback from iGEM Judges, since part of the relevant information about the project have not been shown or uploaded to the evaluation deliverables.
However, against all odds, during the iGEM awards ceremony on Sunday 14th of November we found how judges managed to dive trhough our project and eventually considered it worthy of a gold medal. This gold medal encouraged the team and served as a recognition of all the efforst performed during the whole year.
In addition, this is the first time an iGEM team from our region wons a gold medal, which definetely served as a demonstration for our university and sponsors that supporting our and future iGEM teams is worthwhile.