Organizing an in-house Science POP competition
Participating institutions must hold their in-house competitions between May 1st and October 1st, 2024, and are free to include one, two or all three of the Science POP challenges described in the 'Challenges' section. Participating institutions must be self-reliable in obtaining the financial resources required to hold their in-house Science POP competition and award prizes to their winners. The Science POP Governance Committee will support them throughout the organization steps, namely by providing a variety of tools. These will be made available to participating institutions by April 1st 2024, and will include:

• Graphic tools: Official Science POP logo, e-mail banners, website banners, visuals for social media, promotional poster templates, slide templates for the candidate’s challenge presentations, award certificate template, confirmation of participation template, etc. 
• Logistical tools: Pre-built Fourwaves website (optional for each participating institution; $400 fee for a basic version, $800 fee for a full version), challenge registration form template, challenge candidate commitment form, competition organization checklist, etc.
• Reference documents: Challenge summary sheets, presentation rules summary sheet, standardized and challenge-specific evaluation grids, etc.

For an overview of the steps involved in organizing an in-house competition, please consult this event planning checklist (French only).

Reaching the provincial final 
Once the in-house competition has been held, the list of all candidates who took part in it, specifying those who won first-place in each challenge must be forwarded to the Governance Committee before October 4, 2024, at sciencepop@ircm.qc.ca. The contact person at each participating institution will receive an e-mail listing the information to be provided. To find out about the terms and conditions regarding accommodation for finalists from institutions located outside Montreal, contact Science POP (sciencepop@ircm.qc.ca). The provincial final will be held on November 21 and 22, 2024 at the IRCM, located in the heart of Montreal. Finalists are expected to participate in person, in front of a diverse audience and jury members. However, the presentations will be broadcast live online, so that anyone can attend, regardless of their location. The winners of the Science POP contest will be crowned at the closing ceremony of the provincial final. Contact persons of each participating institution, or another representative, are expected to attend the provincial final, most particularly the award ceremony. The winners will be announced to the general public in the following week, by the Governance Committee.

Competition organization checklist (FR) 

Challenge submission form (FR) 

Challenge candidate commitment form 

Confirmation of participation template 

Award certificate template (FR) 

Judge Commitment Form 

Standardized and challenge-specific evaluation grids (FR) 

Volunteer judge's guide - Media Challenge (FR) 

Volunteer judge's guide - Outreach Challenge (FR) 

Volunteer judge's guide - Sustainable Health Challenge (FR) 

Graphics Tools 

Email Banner 

How to obtain a QR code (FR) 

Promotional poster templates 

Visual for social media and Website 

Registering as a challenge candidate
Anyone interested in taking on a Science POP challenge must first consult the eligibility criteria (see the 'Competition' section below) and then check the list of participating institutions, which will be published during the week of February 26, 2024, to see if their establishment will be organizing an in-house competition as part of the Science POP 2024 edition. Details of how to register (dates, information to provide such as profile picture, title and brief description of presentation, etc.) for the corresponding in-house competition will be sent to the student communities by the contact person of each participating institution.

Preparing for an in-house competition
Starting on April 1st, 2024, reference documents and training tools will be made available to all challenge candidates, in order to develop their communication skills and help them adjust their presentation to the expectations of their challenge. The Governance Committee will be holding facultative, monthly Q&A sessions on Zoom, starting in April, to answer candidates' questions about the expectations and particularities of each challenge (details coming soon).

Preparing for the provincial final
During the months of October and November 2024, finalists from each participating institution will have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with one of the various communications experts, according to their needs in preparing for the provincial final (details available in the summer of 2024).
 

Admission criteria 

Participating Institutions
Organizations eligible to become participating institutions and hold an in-house competition are: 

• Universities across the province of Quebec that offer graduate programs in Health Sciences;
• Research centers and research institutes affiliated with a Quebec university and dedicated to training students in Health Sciences.

Please note that it is not possible to hold more than one in-house competition within the same university or institution (e.g. different departments, programs, campuses, etc.). 

Challenge candidates 
Individuals eligible to take on a Science POP challenge are:  

• Full-time students enrolled in a Master’s or Doctoral program at a Quebec university and carrying out research activities related to Health Sciences;  
• Postdoctoral fellows pursuing research activities related to Health Sciences at a Quebec university, research center or research institute;
• Graduate students from another Canadian province or abroad doing a research internship at a Quebec university, research center or research institute.

Challenge candidates must meet these eligibility criteria from the moment of their registration to the date of the in-house competition in which they are competing. Any subsequent change in their status (graduation, direct passage, end of postdoctoral training, etc.) will not affect their eligibility to access the provincial final. However, the Governance Committee must be notified at sciencepop@ircm.qc.ca. 

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE WINNERS OF THE CHIEF SCIENTIST PRIZE (1st place of a challenge) AND THE JACQUES-GENEST PRIZE (2nd place of a challenge) OF THE 2023 SCIENCE POP PROVINCIAL FINAL ARE NOT ELIGIBLE FOR THE 2024 EDITION. They are nevertheless encouraged to participate, albeit out-of-competition. Winners of a People’s Choice Award can still sign up as candidates.

Obligations of each participating institution

Graphics chart
All promotional and/or audiovisual material used for Science POP (posters, banners, logos, fonts, etc.) must be prepared using the tools provided by the Governance Committee (available in the week of February 26). If an additional tool is required, we invite the contact person of each participating institution to send a request at sciencepop@ircm.qc.ca. All posts on social networks must contain the keyword #sciencepop. 

Accessibility
The IRCM and FRQS recommend that participating institutions organize competitions that respect the values of equity, diversity and inclusion, and that encourage people from minority groups to take on a challenge. As far as language is concerned, the use of French is encouraged; however, it is possible to hold a competition and/or participate in English, provided that a translation service is offered to the audience. The provincial final will be hosted in French, with live translation in the form of on-screen subtitles. 

Public engagement
The primary mission of Science POP is to promote the dialogue between scientists and their surrounding society. As such, participating institutions are strongly encouraged to involve the general public in all aspects of their competition, whether as audience members, volunteers or judges.

Embargo for in-house competition finalists 
Broadcasting an audiovisual recording or the slides of a winning presentation on a publicly available platform (e.g. websites, social networks, newsletter, etc.) prior to the public announcement of the provincial final winners by the FRQS and IRCM will result in the disqualification of the candidates in question. An e-mail will be sent to contact persons and finalists when the embargo is lifted.

Obligations of each candidate

Single participation
Candidates wishing to participate in the Science POP contest may not register to more than one in-house competition among those organized by the various participating institutions and must choose one challenge for which they wish to be eligible to win a prize and gain access to the provincial final. To take on additional challenges, candidates must do so in an out-of-competition manner and identify in advance, at the moment of their registration, which presentation should be considered as in-competition. 

Presence at the provincial final
From the moment of their registration, challenge candidates must commit to being available to participate in person at the provincial final, scheduled for November 21 and 22, 2024, should they rank 1st place in a challenge at their participating institution's in-house competition. Should an unexpected situation prevent them from participating in person, the candidate who ranked 2nd will take their place at the final. This decision will be irreversible.

Consent 
Challenge candidates must consent to see their name, photo, presentation details and any audiovisual recordings in which they feature used for promotional purposes by the Governance Committee and/or its partners at FRQS and IRCM. This could be in the form of web pages, communications (e-mails, newsletters, news, newspaper articles, posts on social media, etc.), multimedia productions (videoclips, films, DVDs, etc.), or artistic montages (posters, exhibitions, etc.).

Embargo
Challenge candidates must respect the embargo described in the section above (Obligations of participating institutions > Embargo for in-house competition finalists).

Challenge-specific guidelines
Regardless of their selected challenge, all candidates must provide a title and a brief description of their presentation, at the moment of their registration to participate in an in-house competition. Instructions will be provided by the Governance Committee. However, each challenge has different requirements in terms of presentation length, format and permissions. Candidates should make sure they are well-informed of these details, by consulting the reference documents that will be posted online during the week of February 26, 2024 or provided to them by the contact person of their participating institution. For any questions or clarifications, the Governance Committee recommends that candidates reach out to the contact person of their participating institution or send an email to sciencepop@ircm.qc.ca. 

Presentation visual aids
To take on a challenge, candidates must prepare a presentation in the form of a speech (no songs, poems, mimes, etc.), without soundtracks or pre-recorded narration. Visual aids (slides and/or a stage prop, as dictated for each challenge) are not mandatory, but strongly recommended. Candidates must be the authors of the images, drawings, animations and videos used. Otherwise, it is imperative that they verify the material’s copyrights and licences and have authorization to use it, and to provide a full reference. PROVINCIAL FINAL: Any prop used on stage must be a personal object, easy to carry and not extravagant; it may only stay on stage for the duration of the presentation. All slides used as visual aids must be 1) prepared using the templates provided by the Governance Committee, 2) in 16:9 format on screen, and 3) presented using the Microsoft PowerPoint software (no conversion to PDF or other file types). No presenter's notes or memory aids will be allowed, whether on the screen, in the speaker’ hands or on the podium.