13TH INTERNATIONAL AWARD ON SCIENTIFIC AND NATURE ILLUSTRATION ILLUSTRACIENCIA

The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), through its Deputy Vice-Presidency for Scientific Culture and Citizen Science (VACC-CSIC), the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN-CSIC) and the Instituto Español Oceanográfico (IEO-CSIC), together with the Associació Catalana de Comunicació Científica (ACCC), are organizing the 13th edition of the ‘International Award for Scientific and Nature Illustration ILLUSTRACIENCIA’. The initiative aims to promote scientific culture through scientific illustration, as well as to encourage the development and knowledge of this discipline long linked to science and science communication.

In the present edition of the Award, thanks to the special collaboration with Instituto Español Oceanográfico (IEO-CSIC) and on the occasion of the commemoration of the 140th anniversary of the creation of the Marine Biology Station of Spain in the year 1886, a marine station precursor of the Santander Oceanographic Centre (IEO headquarters in Cantabria), the third category dedicated to marine sciences is included, which bears the name of the scientific illustrator and pioneer of marine sciences Luisa de la Vega, who initiated the aforementioned station together with González de Linares, and was appointed interim artistic assistant illustrator at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales.

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?

All individuals or teams of individuals over 18 years old may participate in this Award, regardless of their current country of residence. The winners of the previous edition, the members of the organizing committee, the members of the jury and the teaching staff of the Illustraciencia Academy are excluded from this call.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE?

Each participant may submit a single work, using the web form at the link www.Illustraciencia.info/participa, indicating their details and those of the submitted work, as well as the category in which it is entered. In the case of participating as a team, the name of all its members must be indicated.

The theme of the illustrations must be related to science and/or nature and the technique is free. The work may deal with topics related to all areas of scientific production and knowledge and must have been created between January 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026. It is mandatory to indicate whether Artificial Intelligence has been used in its creation.

For registration, the size of the original illustration must be adapted to the following size: A4 (210 x 297mm) 150 DPI in RGB. The proposal must not include watermark, title or texts (except for possible signatures, numbers or letters of figures and symbols that are part of the work). The image file of the illustration must be named with the title of the submitted proposal. Example: “Loligo-vulgaris.jpg”.

In the registration form, in addition to the characteristics of the work, the descriptive text of the work must be completed, responding to the three corresponding sections for this purpose. These sections, which will constitute the descriptive text of the work, must be completed in Spanish, in English or in another official Spanish language. If this information is completed in a language other than Spanish, the corresponding Spanish version must be included below. The text of each of these sections must have the following characteristics:

  • An indicative length of between 50 and 100 words.
  • The texts must be totally original and rigorous. Proposals that include plagiarism, a text copied from third parties without citing the author, will be excluded from the call.
  • It must rigorously describe the species or element represented and explain the scientific, outreach or artistic interest with which it has been created, as well as some scientific curiosity or relevant characteristic shown in the illustration.
  • Languages: the text may be written in Spanish, English or any other official Spanish language. If it is not written in Spanish, the corresponding revised Spanish translation must also be added.

All these aspects, as well as their quality, will be taken into account in the evaluation of the jury. The organization of the competition reserves the right to review and edit the texts corresponding to the different selected works in order to guarantee their scientific and outreach rigor.

Proposals that include plagiarism, both in the image and in the text, or that do not comply with the requirements of these rules will be excluded from the call.

The deadline for receiving works will remain open from February 25 to March 31, 2026 (11:59pm mainland Spain time).

On April 28, 2026, the 40 selected works will be announced through the competition’s dissemination channels. Notification of the selected works will be made by email. Selected persons must send within 7 days their illustration in high quality, adapted to be printed in A2 format (420 x 594mm) at a minimum of 300 DPI in CMYK color.

CALENDAR

  • Reception of proposals: February 25 – March 31, 2026 (11:59pm mainland Spain time).
  • Publication of selected works: April 28, 2026.
  • Online voting for the Public Mention: April 28 to May 5, 2026.
  • Announcement of winning works and mentions: May 26 to 29, 2026.
  • Opening of the exhibition: June 26, 2026.

CATEGORIES

  • Scientific. In this category, communicative effectiveness and scientific rigor will be mainly assessed. The proposals must provide data graphically and may represent taxonomic characteristics, complex processes and relationships between different elements. The image must use graphic and drawing techniques in the service of science communication, prioritizing understanding of the content over aesthetic impact. Key features:
    • Clear explanatory intention that includes data rigorously for a scientific understanding of the subject represented.
    • Conscious use of representation of taxonomy, diagrams, sections, sequences, zooms, scales, labels or relationships.
    • Verifiable scientific rigor.
    • Graphic decisions in the service of the message.
  • Naturalist. Proposals that represent nature and its elements in a detailed and faithful way to reality. In this category, fidelity to natural reality and both the artistic and technical quality of the representation will be mainly assessed. Key features:
    • Morphological, chromatic and proportional fidelity.
    • The natural habitat and other characteristics of the species are shown.
    • Capacity for observation.
    • Technical quality of drawing or painting.
    • Visual and compositional coherence.
  • Marine Sciences “Luisa de la Vega”: Proposals related to marine sciences and that represent scientific knowledge about the marine environment and its multiple forms of life, ecological processes, oceanographic phenomena, etc. Works addressing topics such as marine biodiversity and its ecological functions, anatomy of ocean species, characteristics and functions of marine ecosystems, biogeochemical cycles, ocean conservation, impacts of climate change, scientific research linked to the sea or any other relevant aspect of marine sciences are accepted.

SELECTION

From among all the proposals received, the jury will select a maximum of 40 illustrations that will form part of the travelling exhibition, based on their technical rigor, innovation and outreach quality. From among these 40 works, one winning work and up to two special mentions per category will be decided (by unanimous decision or majority vote).

From the 40 selected works, a special Public Mention will also be chosen by online popular vote through a web form that will be announced together with the 40 selected works.

PRIZES

The Illustraciencia Award grants an endowment of 1,000 euros per winning work in each of the three categories. The authors of the 40 selected works, the Public Mention and the Jury Mentions will receive a digital certificate of accreditation. The corresponding personal income tax reduction (IRPF) will be applied to the monetary prizes.

  • Awarded participants must submit by email within a maximum period of ten days the following documentation:
  • Copy of passport or identification document.
  • Certificate of bank account ownership.

JURY

The jury will be composed of a sufficiently numerous and diverse neutral group including staff from the CSIC, the MNCN-CSIC, the IEO-CSIC, the ACCC and the Illustraciencia advisory committee, and will consist of specialists in the disciplines of scientific illustration, scientific research and science communication. The selection of the works will be made based on their rigor and technical and outreach quality. Among the 40 selected works, the jury will decide one prize per category and up to two special mentions per category. This selection will be made by unanimous decision and/or by majority vote. The jury’s decision will be final. The selected illustrators will receive a certificate of accreditation by email.

AUTHORIZATION

Participation in the Award automatically implies acceptance of these rules. By participating, the authors of the works non-exclusively authorize the organization to use, reproduce and/or publicly communicate their work and their name in all activities related to the Award that are carried out, without the participant being entitled to receive any compensation for this concept. The organization undertakes not to commercialize the submitted works independently and to always cite their authorship.

The participant declares and guarantees to the organization that they are the sole holder of all copyright over the work submitted to the Award and assumes full responsibility for the absence of third-party rights over the submitted works, as well as for any third-party claims for image rights.

The organization is empowered to exclude from the Award those participants who do not comply with the requirements established in these rules. Works that are plagiarisms or that have been made with Artificial Intelligence and do not specify this will be disqualified and published in the website section of disqualified proposals.

The CSIC, the MNCN-CSIC, the IEO-CSIC and the ACCC are exempt from any obligation or compensation towards the participants in the Award if, due to force majeure or legal imperative, the Award must be cancelled or suspended, a situation that the organization would duly communicate to the participants. To the fullest extent permitted by law, the participants in this Award release the CSIC, the MNCN-CSIC, the IEO-CSIC and the ACCC from any type of liability, sanction, claim, lawsuit or civil, commercial, criminal or administrative action. This includes compensation of any kind, expenses for any claim that they may receive as a consequence of the participants’ failure to comply with the rules (expressly including lawyers’ and legal representatives’ fees).