2025 Festive Science Image Competition
We need your help to create the artwork for our 2025 Season's Greetings Card! Can you combine a science image with a festive theme for the chance to win £500?
The Medical Research Foundation and the Medical Research Council’s Festive Science Image Competition is now in its fourth year! We had some excellent entries in 2024, and you can view the winners here.
The aim of this competition is to give members of the medical research community an opportunity to play a role in designing the Foundation and MRC’s joint Season’s Greetings Card for 2025.
We are asking entrants to produce a design which combines scientific imagery with a festive theme, alongside a title and description written for a non-scientific audience, to demonstrate their science communication skills and creativity. The winner will be awarded a prize of up to £500 and have their image seen by numerous senior stakeholders across the medical research community.
This competition is open to all Foundation and MRC-funded researchers, staff and students.
The deadline for submission is 12.00pm on Friday 7 November 2025.
(Please note: the competition deadline has been extended from Wednesday 29 October 2025.)
Questions about the competition?
Get in touch with the press team, and we'll do our best to help!
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Who can enter?
The competition is open to:
- Foundation or MRC-funded researchers (including studentships, fellowships, research grant-holders), technicians and support staff
- Foundation or MRC Head Office staff
- MRC unit, centre, or institute staff.
What we’re looking for
Your image should have direct relevance to medical research and it must be festive! We are keen for creative submissions produced using a wide variety of media; your image could be a digital design, drawing, painting or a photograph. It could also be a digital image produced by microscopy or imaging equipment.
Images with AI-generated elements will be accepted, but this should be clearly labelled in the submission. Images entirely generated using AI are not permitted.
We encourage creativity when relating your image to the festive theme. Your image could be aesthetically linked, for example, a bacterial culture which resembles a snowflake or thematically linked, for example, an exchange of molecules between cells which represents gift-giving.
Please provide an image title (maximum of 100 characters, not including spaces) and a short description (maximum of 100 words) written for a non-scientific audience, explaining:
- What the image shows
- How it relates to medical research
- How it relates to the festive period
- How it was created.
How your image will be assessed
Submitted images will be assessed anonymously and names/affiliations won’t be shared until a winner is decided. A panel of judges with a science, medical research, communications and public engagement background will select a winner and any highly commended entries.
The panel will assess the images using the following criteria:
- Aesthetics: the image needs to be eye-catching and visually appealing.
- Image quality: the image needs to be of a high quality, in order to be reproduced on the greetings card.
- Festivity: the image needs to be related to festive imagery or share a thematic link with how people celebrate during the festive period. We welcome submissions from members of the research community from all backgrounds depicting what ‘festivity’ means to you.
- Communication: the image description needs to clearly explain the research or science in a way that is easily understood by a non-scientific audience. There is no expectation for the image description to be festive.
The Prize
The Foundation will award the winning entrant a cash prize of up to £500. The winning image will feature on the Foundation and MRC’s 2025 Season’s Greetings Card, which is sent to over 1,000 key stakeholders across the research community, as well as the Foundation’s supporters, to thank them for their efforts and support during the year. The card is also shared via Foundation and MRC social media channels.
How to enter
Please ensure you only submit one image. It should meet the following criteria:
- Still image, in JPG, PNG or HEIC/HEIF format.
- Image resolution: at least 300dpi.
- Uploaded ahead of the deadline via WeTransfer: https://wetransfer.com (Email to: press.team@medicalresearchfoundation.org.uk).
- Labelled clearly in the WeTransfer title/file name with your full name, job title and institution.
- Submitted with your title/description in the WeTransfer ‘Message’ box.
The deadline for submission is 12.00pm on Wednesday 29 October 2025.
We are committed to making this competition accessible to all, by offering assistance where needed. Please contact press.team@medicalresearchfoundation.org.uk if you have any questions or concerns about the entry process or would like assistance.
Download our 2025 Competition Guidance as a PDF.
Please be aware that your image will be viewed by the judging panel, may be shared on Foundation/MRC social media channels and, if chosen as the winner, will be used on the 2025 Season’s Greetings Card.
Full copyright is retained by the creator of any entry and wherever the winning image is used, it will be credited to the entrant.
