The competition is held annually. An international jury will meet at the beginning of the year and award a CHF 1,000 prize in each category for the winning entry, as well as CHF 250 for each distinction. The award-winning works are announced in April or May, displayed in an exhibition at the Biel/Bienne Festival of Photography and made available to the public and the media, as well as to scientific institutions.
The competition has multiple aims: to highlight the growing role of images in scientific research, to reveal how scientific work is conducted and to give a face to the researchers conducting it. The competition also aims to encourage the media to use more images in their science coverage and make them accessible to the public through exhibitions.
We encourage researchers to pick up their camera and document the – often unusual – environment in which they work, and to give their colleagues a face.
Submission form
Jury 2020
The jury includes international experts in the fields of photography, museums, media and research from around the world.
President of the jury:
Nadine Wietslisbach, director of the Fotomuseum Winterthur (Switzerland)
Members:
Award ceremony, exhibition and online galleries
The award ceremony will be held in autumn 2020. The exhibition at the Biel/Bienne Festival of Photography, planned for May 2020, has been cancelled due to the Covid-19 epidemic.
The images are presented at other exhibitions as well as online:
Participation requirements
All scientists working at a research institution in Switzerland are eligible to participate The works must have been produced less than 12 months before the deadline for submitting entries.
SNSF Scientific Image Competition – Terms and conditions (PDF, 57 KB)
Submission
Researchers who wish to take part in the competition must fill in the online form.
Submission form
Categories of the competition
Each participant may submit from 1 to 5 entries, in one or more of the following categories:
1) Object of study (image)
From the microcosm to the macrocosm, images of the research object captured by scientists using a camera or generated by a computer.
2) Women and men of science (photographs)
Photographs of research in practice, presented by and featuring those conducting it.
3) Places and tools
Photographs of the surroundings in which scientists take measurements, generate data and make discoveries, and of the instruments they use while doing so.
4) Video loop
Chronophotography, video or animated gif, documenting some aspects of categories 1 to 3.
Technical details
Photography
Digital image file obtained from a camera. Format: JPEG or TIFF. Maximum size: 100 MB. Minimum resolution: 2000 x 3000 pixels (16.9 x 25.4 cm to 300 dpi). Digital touching up permitted.
Image
Digital image file taken from a camera or computer-generated from data obtained through observation or computer simulation (excluding explanatory infographics). Others: see "Photographs", above.
Video
Digital video file taken from a camera or computer-generated from data obtained through observation or computer simulation (excluding explanatory infographics). Formats: GIF, AVI, MP4 (edited in a loop). Maximum size: 300 MB. Duration: from 3 to 15 seconds. Minimum resolution: 480 x 720 pixels (DVD resolution). Digital touching up permitted.
Terms of use
The participants retain their copyright. They authorise the publication of the submitted images under a CC-BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/): unaltered images can be used freely for non-commercial purposes as long as they are credited as the creator of the image.
By the closing date for applications at the end of January 2019, more than 450 entries had been submitted from all regions of Switzerland. An international jury selected one winner and multiple distinctions in each of four categories.
Winners
Distinctions
Exhibition
All the award-winning entries as well as many others are shown at this year’s Biel/Bienne Festival of Photography from 10 May to 2 June 2019.
Online gallery
Many of the images are presented in an online gallery. Follow the images from the competition on Twitter using the hashtag #SwissScienceImage.
By the closing date for applications at the end of January 2018, more than 350 entries had been submitted from all regions of Switzerland. An international jury selected one winner and two distinctions in each of four categories.
Winners
Distinctions
Exhibition
All the award-winning entries as well as many others have been shown at this year’s Biel/Bienne Festival of Photography from 4 to 27 May 2018.
The images were on display at other venues.
Online gallery
Many of the images are presented in an online gallery. Follow the images from the competition on Twitter using the hashtag #SwissScienceImage.
These are the four winning images as well as the eleven distinctions awarded by the international jury in May 2017. In total, 239 researchers registered 497 entries for the SNSF Scientific Image Competition 2017.
The winners
Distinctions
Exhibition
The "SNSF Scientific Image Competition" exhibition, organised by the Biel/Bienne Festival of Photography (5-28 May 2017), focuses on the 15 pictures selected by the jury, but also shows a number of other entries.
The images were on display at other venues in Switzerland and abroad in the course of 2017.
Online gallery
Many of the images are presented in an online gallery. Follow the images from the competition on Twitter using the hashtag #SwissScienceImage.