We are pleased to officially open submissions for the Ecotoxicomic YR Meme* Contest 2025, held in association with the upcoming Ecotoxicomic YR Webinar!
This contest aims to celebrate humor, creativity and daily scientific life within our community of microbial ecotoxicologists and microbial ecologists. Memes are a fun way to share the reality of research, from lab benches to data analysis struggles.
We are looking forward to your most creative, funny and scientifically inspired memes. Let’s showcase the humorous side of microbial ecotoxicology and ecology! And follow us on Instagram (@EcotoxicoMic).
(*Meme: A meme is an image accompanied by humorous text that illustrates a concept, idea, or recurring situation ; in this case, related to microbial ecotoxicology or the everyday life of scientists in the lab.)
Submission deadline: October 6th, 2025
Winners announced: November 3rd, 2025 during the Ecotoxicomic YR Webinar
Official Rules & Guidelines :
📂 Contest Categories
🧪 Category 1 — “Best Meme in Microbial Ecotoxicology”
Submit your best meme related to microbial ecotoxicology: research topics, challenges, fieldwork, methods, bioinformatics, conferences, etc.
- Prizes:
🥇 1st prize: Printed hoodie and lunch with the winning meme.
🥈 2nd prize: Lunch bag with the winning meme.
🔬 Category 2 — “My Life as scientist in Meme”
Share funny, relatable moments from daily life as a scientist: lab work, sampling, field trips, manuscript submissions, conferences, peer reviews, etc.
- Prizes:
🥇 1st prize: Printed T-shirt and mouse pad with the winning meme.
🥈 2nd prize: Bottle water printed with the winning meme.
🗓️ Key Dates
- Submission deadline: October 6th, 2025
- Winners announced: November 3rd, 2025 during the Ecotoxicomic YR Webinar
📌Submission through:
- Instagram publication (tag @EcotoxicoMic), by private message at @EcotoxicoMic or by email ecotoxicomicyr@gmail.com (only if you don’t have an Instagram account).
- All submitted memes will be published for everyone to see them.
📌 Submission Guidelines
To ensure fair participation, please follow these simple guidelines:
- Memes must be original and created by the participant.
- Avoid plagiarism. If you use pre-existing meme formats, add original captions/content.
- Memes must not contain :
- Abusive, defamatory, insulting or offensive statements.
- Content of a sexist, racist, homophobic or discriminatory nature.
- Political, religious, or hate-inciting statements.
- Sexually explicit or inappropriate content.
- Any form of harassment or intimidation.
- If using any photo where people are recognizable, make sure you have obtained their explicit consent for public use. We will ask you to give us the written consent of the people.
- Use copyright-free or personal images whenever possible (avoid images from movies, cartoons etc). OpenAI is authorized but the original idea should be coming from the participant.
- Memes should be submitted in high-quality (300 dpi) and PNG, or PDF image format).
- Submissions must be in English.
- By submitting a meme, participants agree that Ecotoxicomic YR may use and share the meme (always crediting the creator) for communication, promotion and dissemination purposes.
- Maximum two memes can be submitted per person.
- Specify which category can be attributed to your meme.
The organizing committee reserves the right to reject any submission that does not comply with these guidelines.
🎯 Evaluation Criteria
Submitted memes will be evaluated by the Ecotoxicomic participants on Instagram (based on the vote number) based on:
- Link with microbial ecotoxicology or the scientist life reality
- Creativity & originality
- Humor & relatability
- Scientific relevance
- Respect of the submission guidelines