You know a lot about synthetic biology now. You must be excited about all the possibilities you can explore with synthetic biology. Are you ready to build your iGEM team? In the next couple of videos, we will give you some useful tips to make the process of going from an idea to a successful iGEM team smoother. Yes, you can make it real!

Before you begin, consult the iGEM official website, the Calendar of Events, as well as the requirements.
First of all, iGEM is a team competition. Try to gather 2-3 people who are passionate about science and learning synthetic biology and willing to spend time and participate in iGEM. You will also need advisors who can either be one of your teachers or a University professor to help guide you through your project. You will need a space, materials (see: Materials and Equipment for iGEM, a budget and, of course, more people!

Here, we will give you some practical tips on how to build a team:

First, try to personally contact people that you know who may be interested. But don’t limit yourself to your friends. Try to make events and gatherings to let other students know about synthetic biology and the exciting projects iGEM can produce. Look at some past projects and showcase these ideas. You can also brainstorm for other ideas. Remember to be open to people with different interests, even far from biology because they can bring a fresh approach to your project, new ideas and skills. Try to make both, your project and iGEM attractive such that someone who doesn’t know about synthetic biology can get interested too. Tell them about the advantages of participating. For example, the trip to Boston and how this will be a fun experience where they will learn new skills.

Once you have a group of people interested, verify if they are really willing to work on the project, if they can spend a lot of time on it and put away other passions that would collide with the iGEM work. iGEM is a competition that requires a lot of attention and work, and this should be clear to anyone who wants to participate.
You also want to work with people you can discuss ideas with. This doesn’t mean they always have to agree with you. Good projects are fruits of disagreement of many different views and consensus on an idea that is approved by everyone.
Also, know that you will need people with different skills for example physics, informatics, chemistry, mathematics, design or people willing to learn particular skills they may not know yet.

Of course, gathering people with interest isn’t the end of forming a successful iGEM team. There are many administrative formalities that you will have to take care of. The first thing you have to do is to contact an undergraduate or overgraduate (college) iGEM team in or around your town and ask for help. They probably have solutions to administrative tasks, such as fundraising, that are specific to your area, and they can share this knowledge with you. Try to ask them how they organised their team and work, what were their biggest problems and how they dealt with them. If you find that your high-school doesn’t have the required facilities or space, try to find them by contacting Science Institutes/College/University or even DIY biohack. You can try to make your own machines and be resourceful with what you have. It can be simpler than you think and this is part of the scientific and research learning process. Some iGEM teams have already used DIY lab equipment with a good result.

You also need to register your team and pay registration fees. Do the paperwork and also the Safety form. As well as the forms required for iGEM. Your school or district might impose additional requirements. This is an important detail, because only teams registered before the deadline are allowed to participate in iGEM competition!