Submissions will be accepted from February 27 to April 6 (11:59 p.m.), 2025 via the submission form available here. 

Note: Competition organizers reserve the right to remove any submission which depicts or could be perceived to depict any conduct/practice which violates standards and norms for the ethical conduct of research. 

• Entrants may submit one image per competition category. Any subsequent submissions per category will not be considered.  
• Images may not be duplicated in another category. 
• All images must depict McMaster University affiliated research.   
• Colorization and graphic processing with editing software may be used to clarify the content of an analog or digital image. 
• Artificial intelligence may not to be used to produce the image itself.   
• Images must be accompanied with a title and informative description (free of jargon and in plain language) of what is depicted (100 words maximum).
• Only high-resolution images that are the original work of the entrant will be accepted. Images should be submitted in PNG or JPG file format. It is recommended that the images be between 2-10 MB. 

Winners from each competition category will be selected by a multidisciplinary jury (comprised of members of the McMaster community) based on anonymized entries and according to the following criteria:   

• The image’s creativity / ability to spark curiosity 
• Aesthetic appeal of the image 
• Degree to which the image showcases the entrant’s research and aligns with the Strategic Research Plan
• Clarity and creativity of the written description and title in conveying the research impact 

One winner and one runner-up will be chosen from each of the five submission categories and awarded $500 and $250, respectively.  

An additional $300 prize will be awarded for Best Description: the clearest, most vibrant description and title. 

Category winners will be announced at the 2025 Art of Research reception in May which will showcase all submitted entries. Event details to follow. 

The copyright in the submitted photographs shall remain with Entrant. The Entrant will retain all rights, title, and interest in the Entrant’s submitted images subject to the license granted to McMaster University as outlined in these Terms and Conditions.

By submitting an image to the competition, the Entrant is certifying that they are the copyright owner of the submitted image and have the necessary rights, permissions, and/or licenses to submit the image to the competition, for use by McMaster University. These rights and permissions include, but are not limited to, permission from any identifiable human subject depicted, and/or permission from publishers, funding agencies, or research partners who have been involved in the work depicted.

By entering into the competition and submitting their image, the Entrants are granting permission to and granting a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, transferable license to use, reproduce, display, distribute, and publicly exhibit the submitted images in any media format (including but not limited to print, digital, and online) for research communication and promotion (“Permitted Purpose”). The Entrant agrees and acknowledges that Entrant will not receive monetary compensation, however, McMaster University will make every effort to give photo credit whenever it is used, but reserves the right to use the photo without credit when and wherever deemed appropriate.

The Entrant further agrees and acknowledges that McMaster University may, at its discretion, crop, resize, or otherwise modify the Entrant’s submitted image for Permitted Purpose.