Science Me A Story 2022 Contest

Science-me a Story contest is back. For the fifth time, we are launching the yearly the contest of scientific stories for kids. The contest opens on t

Science-me a Story contest is back. For the fifth time, we are launching the yearly the contest of scientific stories for kids. The contest opens on the 14th of February and it will close on the 24th of April at 23:59 (UK time). If you want to participate, check the rules below or download them here. Check the awarded stories of the previous years for inspiration on this link.

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5th Edition (2022)

A contest of writing scientific stories for children 

This competition was created by the Society of Spanish Researchers in the UK (SRUK/CERU) with the aim of promoting scientific outreach in a fun and engaging way, appropriate for primary school children. The ultimate goal of the contest is to promote scientific spirit and inspire the generations that will build our future. We hope to achieve this through the communication of scientific achievements, findings, methods, and anecdotes in the form of short stories. 

Competition rules

The competition is open to any adult (aged 18 years and older), irrespective of their nationality or country of residence as long as the stories, presented in Spanish or English, are original and unpublished by any media (including Internet).

 The manuscript should not have been awarded or been pending on deliberation in a previous contest. The breach of this clause automatically disqualifies the participant.

Each author or coauthors may present a singular and different story by category :

• Short story in Spanish.
• Short story in English.

The submitted manuscript should comply with the following criteria:

• The story, real or fictional, must be conceived from the objective of scientific dissemination to primary school children (aged 6 to 12 years) through the use of the narrative technique, as prose or poem. The topic should be related to science, the scientific method, the research process and scientific discovery, everyday life of a scientist, etc.
• The science behind the stories must be verified -based on scientific evidence-, either published papers or as a result of own rigorous and validated experiments. 
• The manuscript must be written in correct Spanish or English, according to the selected category. 
• A single original copy of the manuscript will be submitted in pdf format, written entirely using Arial font, size 12 and 1.5 line spacing throughout (including title).
• The extent of the manuscript will be as follow: 
• prose: 400 to 1700 words,
• poems: 170 to 1000 words
• Manuscripts  cannot contain images.
• The entries must be sent via email to relatosciencia@sruk.org.uk. The email must only include the contestant’s name, nationality, email address and telephone number (including the country’s telephone code), the story title and the  category selected. The email subject must be the story title.  Importantly, a PDF file, with the same name as the title of the manuscript, must be attached to the email and must contain only the story.The PDF file must not contain personal information, signature or any other identification of the contestant.
• The submission deadline is 23:59 pm London UK time on the 24th April 2022. 
• The jury will consist of people related to the scientific, cultural and literary field. In addition to the prizes decision and allocation, the judging panel (whose composition will be announced once emitted the decision) will be able to interpret these rules, and their decision will be unappealable. None of the jury members may participate in this contest.
• The manuscripts will be evaluated by the appropriateness to the theme, the literary quality, originality, structure and coherence of the narrative, as well as style, creativity and imagination. Lack of clarity and orthographic mistakes might disqualify the participant.
• The decision of the judging panel will be disclosed through the SRUK/CERU webpage and other online media from late June, and it will be communicated to the winners via email or phone call. 
• The awards for each category will include a winner prize (£200) and two runners-up prizes (£150 and £100). The awarded stories will be published in the online magazine PRINCIPIA (stories in Spanish, https://principia.io/) and in the website of the literature hub at the University of Liverpool (stories in English, https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/literature-and-science/blog/events/scistory/), following  author’s consent. Important: The publishers reserve the right to edit the texts to guarantee their orthotypographic, literary and informative quality.
• The Society of Spanish Researchers in the UK (SRUK/CERU) will keep the rights of publication and assignment of the award-winning stories and finalists.
• The society of Spanish Researchers in the UK (SRUK/CERU) will keep, exempt from any payment in favour of the authors, the right of use of the award-winning stories and finalists in future non-profit activities and events of science outreach promoted by this society.
• By participating in this competition, the contestants agree to comply with all the aforementioned rules. The interpretation of these rules as well as any other situation related with the competition lies with SRUK and the Jury. 
• Please see FAQs in here: https://sruk.org.uk/initiatives/public-engagement/science-me-a-story/science-me-a-story-faqs/.

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