Timofey Glinin

Dear colleagues, We’d like to share an opportunity that may be of interest to your students and peers. The First Approval platform has launched an international Student Biological Data Competition to promote a culture of open data in science and support early-career researchers. The initiative supports open science while giving students valuable opportunities for recognition, publication experience, and the chance to win a cash prize. The competition is open to students in a wide range of biological fields, from molecular biology to behavioral science, and offers first-authored dataset publications with DOIs alongside monetary awards. Please consider sharing this opportunity within your academic and research communities. Below is the official announcement: We are pleased to invite students to participate in the First Approval Student Biological Data Competition, a unique initiative aimed at encouraging the next generation of scientists to publish high-quality data in biology, biotechnology, and biomedicine. This first-of-its-kind competition directly evaluates the quality of scientific datasets and their annotation, aiming to promote Open Data practices among students Key Benefits: Prize Pool of $7500 will be distributed among 32 winners. Early Publication Experience. All participants will receive a first-authored Open Access data publication with a DOI. Open Science Focus. Both original data and negative or replicated experiments are welcome. Who Can Join: Undergraduate, Graduate, and PhD students in biology, biotechnology, or biomedicine. Eligible fields of Research: Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Genetics, Cell Biology and Histology, Physiology, Biophysics, Neuroscience, Embryology, Biomedical Research, Biotechnology, Omics Technologies, Behavioral Science, Aging, Zoology and Entomology, Botany, Virology and Parasitology, Ecology Submission Guidelines: Submit a dataset with annotation on the First Approval platform (https://firstapproval.io/contest). Submission deadline: 15 September 2025 Submission Cost: Free. Judging & Recognition: A panel of established scientists will evaluate datasets based on their completeness, accuracy, and potential for reuse. The competition is organized in collaboration with Open Longevity, a US nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating aging research. We encourage you to share this invitation with your students. Should you have any questions, please contact us at competition@firstapproval.io. We look forward to seeing your students’ innovative datasets and contributions to the scientific community!