CAPTRS Essay Contest/ How to Apply (Prize: $25,000)
CAPTRS Universe of Threats – Pathogen Threat Essay Contest
The CAPTRS Essay contest seeks scientific writing. The COVID-19 pandemic killed millions of people and wreaked social and economic havoc worldwide. The last three years revealed catastrophic deficiencies in surveillance systems, pandemic playbooks, and ability to anticipate political, social and economic interdependencies that amplified the threat.
CAPTRS is tackling the failure of imagination that plagued our response to COVID-19. The organizers of this contest are building a catalog of pathogen threat scenarios that will be used to hone pandemic preparedness strategies and train future decision makers.
Eligibility for CAPTRS Essay Contest
- Entrants must be 18 years of age or older to participate in this contest. You may submit as an individual or a team. Teams can include up to 6 members and must identify a team lead. All team members must be at least 18 years of age or older. If a team is selected as a winner, the prize money will be awarded to the team lead to split amongst the group.
- CAPTRS employees, contractors, founders or advisory board members and their immediate families are not eligible to participate.
- The essays are limited to a maximum of 2,500 words, and must be written in English.
- The ground truth information will be entered into a separate section on the application. The ground truth is limited to a maximum of 1,000 words
- The optional supporting documentation is limited to one page. This may be a list of references, description of background research, or a letter of support from an expert in a related field.
- Submissions generated in whole or in part by artificial intelligence will be automatically disqualified from the contest.
- You may submit your entry for publication in another forum, but you must inform CAPTRS immediately if your submitted work is accepted for publication. If you submission is published elsewhere, you will not be disqualified.
Submission Guidelines
- You are invited to submit an original essay, describing a pathogen threat scenario.
Scenarios must include both a plausible pathogen emergence story and interdependent social, economic, political, environmental or technological forces that shape the unfolding threat. - They hope to see variety in submissions and welcome essays focused on different points in the timeline of the threat emergence and spread.
- It is also encouraged that you to use your own voice and style. The examples below are from a staff writer, and represent only one style.
- Along with the essay, you must submit a one-page ground truth document which specifies that underlying characteristics of the pathogen, the human populations in which it is spreading, and the unfolding response that may not be explicitly stated in the essay.
- You are implored to look to science and social science in developing your narrative, while boldly thinking outside the box! You may optionally submit one of the following documents to support the plausibility of the scenario: a one-page description of background research, a one-page list of references, or a one-page letter of support from an expert in the field.
- Submission Timeline:Applications open May 1, 2023 at 12 a.m. and close July 31, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. You must create an account in Apply to submit your essay.
- Submit Here
Prize
- First place – $10,000
- Second place – $5,000 (up to 2 winners)
- Third place – $1,000 (up to 5 winners)
**ALL WINNING SUBMISSIONS WILL BE PUBLISHED ON THE CAPTRS WEBSITE.
Judging:
Contributions will be judged anonymously by a panel of CAPTRS team members and guest judges, composed of experts in relevant disciplinary fields. All decisions made by the panel will be final.
Submissions will be evaluated holistically, with particular attending to the following dimensions:
- Overall creativity – the judges seek scenarios that challenge their preparedness paradigm
- Plausibility of the pathogen threat (no zombies!)
- Complexity and plausibility of the cascading societal factors
- Level of difficulty posed for current pandemic response capabilities
- Consistency with the submitted ground truth characteristics
- Quality of writing!
