About
Capture Your Research! is an image competition where students, faculty, and staff can submit one image that captures the essence of their research. They will be judged on originality/creativity, appeal of the image, relationship between the image and their research, and the clarity of the written description.
The top 25 entries will be displayed at our Capture Your Research Reception and Awards Ceremony. We will have four award categories for undergraduate, graduate, faculty/staff (including the research labs/centers), and people’s choice. The awards will be presented at an awards ceremony at the Old Capitol Museum on Thursday, Nov. 6, at 4 p.m. This will be followed by a reception featuring hors d’oeuvres and displaying the top 25 pieces across the categories. All are welcome to join us!
The images will be digitally preserved and added to the Iowa Digital Library. You can find the 2024 winners in our digital gallery.
Definition of Research
What is your day like as a researcher? We want to capture images that feature how interesting life is in research. What images might you be seeing in your day-to-day life that others might not? What images could encompass your work? What drives you to continue to work in research?
Research is broadly defined to mean any systematic investigation or study into a product, process or concept to develop new and improved products and understandings. Examples can range from redesigning a more ergonomic chair or investigating toxicology in drinking water or developing treatments to devastating illness or investigating human behavior in order to better understand ourselves, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Prizes
Winners will be selected from four categories with a first, second, and third place awarded in each category.
- Undergraduate student
- Graduate student
- Faculty/staff/researchers
- People’s choice
The top 10 the first three categories will be part of the online voting for people’s choice and displayed during the awards ceremony.
Submission requirements
Creative interpretation Statement
Entries should go beyond standalone research figures and tables. Instead, they should tell a compelling visual story. We encourage creative approaches — check out previous winners for inspiration.
AI use statement
All original images must be created or curated by the participant (e.g., photography, drawing). While images can be enhanced using artificial intelligence, any submissions found to be entirely AI-generated or using generative fill that are not part of the research will be disqualified.
Timeline
Aug. 25: Submission opens
Oct. 13: Submission closes Submission deadline extended to Oct. 17 (Submit your image here)
Mid-October: Judging
Oct. 23–Oct. 30: People’s choice voting
Nov. 6: Awards ceremony/reception, Old Capitol Museum, 4–6 p.m.
This will be based on a similar project at the University of Alberta. You can find examples of images submitted to the University of Alberta competition on its website.
Find previous submissions in the Iowa Digital Library.
View the winners’ digital gallery our 2020 digital gallery the 2023 digital gallery, and the 2024 gallery.
See more information on the Official Rules and Creative Commons License
Capture Your Research! is sponsored by University of Iowa Libraries, Hanson Center for Communication, NEXUS | Artineers, and Office of Undergraduate Research.