Finance
Introduction
New Team, New Lab, New Budget...
iGEM 2022 is the first time that students from Okanagan, BC, Canada are participating in an international biotechnological competition of such level. While we were all excited, enthusiastic, and highly motivated, we also realized that we need to make our own way to the stars. We had no past experiences, connections, or supplies. So how do you find enough funds to register, start a lab, and take your team to Paris?
At the beginning, we faced some issues from the financial side of the project. We were sending sponsor requests along with our sponsorship package to companies, organizations, and the City of Kelowna. Unfortunately, this phase was not successful and cold emailing was treated with cold shoulders.
We decided to get some funds from crowdfunding and created a GoFundMe page. It allowed our team to share our project with the community and get support from people all around Canada, which helped to partially cover our travel costs!
We also applied for many grants both within and beyond our university. Luckily, UBC Okanagan administration and faculties were very supportive and helped to form the cornerstone of the registration fees and lab materials. Soon enough, the hard work of the Finance group was paid off and our team received financial assistance from the external sponsors as well as won several grants both for the scientific part of the project and for travelling.
Sponsorship Package
In order to garner proper sponsorships, we created a sponsorship package with all of the details of partnering with us and what we could do on our end to fulfill to agreement, in collaboration with the Human Practices team! It's not only filled with financial information, but also general information about iGEM and some of our teams accomplishments! Please take a look:
Sponsors
Since our project Life Bulb would not be possible without our sponsors, our team is extremely grateful to everyone who supported us during iGEM 2022 season. A huge thank you to all the sponsors who helped make our ideas reality.
Academic Sponsors
Our academic sponsors include those organizations who stem from or have close ties to our university, UBCO! This includes grants from faculties, associations, and societies.
Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science: We thank Irving K.
Barber Faculty of Science for their strong belief in our success and their continuous support that they
showed us throughout this iGEM season. It would not be possible for our team to experience the Grand
Jamboree in-person if not for the Undergraduate Student Travel Grant that was given to us by IKB Faculty
of Science.
The Department of Biology:
One of the first organizations to support our initiative, the Department of Biology. They assisted both financially and by providing lab space, equipment, and materials for our research had our backs. Our team highly appreciates the advice, mentorship, and training sessions provided by the professors and lab technicians during the summer.
The Tuum Est Student Initiative Fund:
This fund has enabled us to register the UBC-Okanagan team as an official iGEM 2022 participant. It's meant to provide financial support for student initiatives, conferences, and competitions and bring the student’s ideas to life.
Management Student Association (MSA):
We wish to express our deep gratitude to MSA for their steadfast support and generosity that allowed us to buy necessary reagents and lab materials and continue the experiments in the lab.
The Engineering Society at UBCO (ENGSOC):
With the help of Engineering Society's big-hearted sponsorship, we were able to register for the Jamboree. Without this, we would not be able to be judged or receive a medal.
Students' Union Okanagan (SUO):
Our university union was a reliable ally since the day our team was formed. Our team is grateful for all the financial and social media support that the SUO has given and continues to give to us.
The Dr. Margaret-Ann Armour National Conference Grant (NSERC):
We are honoured to be among The Dr. Margaret-Ann Armour National Conference Grant recipients this year. This grant is administered to support the organization of non-profit national conferences and workshops that contribute to the advancement of women and other underrepresented groups in STEM.
The Department of Chemistry:
Through their kind sponsorship, the Department of Chemistry gave us the ability to buy more lab materials necessary for growing our cyanobacteria and analyzing experimental results.
Westcoast Women in Engineering, Science, and Technology (WWEST):
Another of our goodwilled sponsors, WWEST's support for underrepresented peoples in STEM helps us bring more students to Paris. WWEST also generously spread the word about the interesting research we did this season.
Industrial Sponsors
Our industrial sponsors are those who were not connected to the University or iGEM, but are more in the commercial industry. They were kind enough to give us some of their attention and help us with our project!
New England Biolabs Canada:
For many years, New England Biolabs Canada has been leading the discovery and production of enzymes for molecular biology applications. Our team is grateful for New England Biolabs' generous donation of free enzymes, reagents and a 40% discount for being a brand-new lab.
GRID Networks:
A Wireless Infrastructure company which improves corporate networking systems in the British Columbia Lower-Mainland area, GRID's contributions to the team profoundly helped to pay for the Jamboree travel costs of our members.
SnapGene:
We thank SnapGene for providing free licenses to their platform. This allowed our team to plan, visualize, and document DNA cloning and PCR with much higher efficiency.
iGEM 2022 Platinum Partners Sponsors
These wonderful sponsors were those who are affiliated with iGEM, providing knowledge and equipment to see our experiments through!
Integrated DNA Technology (IDT):
Our team is especially grateful to IDT for giving us the opportunity to synthesize up to 20 kb of gBlocks™ Gene Fragments. This support was instrumental for our team to successfully conduct our Wet Lab experiments by providing us the chance to synthesize our pathway genes.
Twist Bioscience:
Our project would not be the same without Twist Bioscience's generous offer of 10 kb of free Twist Gene Fragments. Twist Bioscience is a biotechnology company that specializes in manufacturing synthetic DNA and DNA products for customers in a wide range of industries.
Beckman Coulter - Life Sciences:
Beckman Coulter develops, manufactures, and markets products that simplify, automate and innovate complex biomedical testing. Beckman Coulter's free RNAdvance Cell v2 kit was much appreciated by our Wet Lab group and was useful for our RT-PCR validation.