Research animal photography award terms and conditions of entry

Entrant eligibility 

1. The Research Animal Photography Awards 2026 is open to citizens and residents of Australia, New Zealand and Oceania’s Pacific Islands. For the purposes of this competition a resident is described as someone who has lived in an eligible country for at least six months at the time of entering this competition. 

2. Winners must supply a mailing address in a country eligible for entry, to receive a prize.

3. Entrants will be employed by or studying at a research organisation in their eligible country. That research organisation will have overall responsibility for the animal research featured in the entry and must be named on the submission. Contractors, such as photographers working at research institutions, are permitted to enter. Submissions must comply with their specific organisation’s regulations around privacy, data security, and any other applicable requirements around the taking and sharing of photographs/media. 

4. Employees and board members of Understanding Animal Research Oceania (the competition organiser) and the sponsors of the Research Animal Photography Awards 2026 are not permitted to enter the competition.

Entry eligibility 

5. Entries must feature animals used in scientific research programmes, in laboratory or field settings. Entries must be accompanied by up to 500 words explaining the scientific context of the work. They should include the scientific species name, conservation status of the species, and provide a relevant Animal Ethics Authority number for the research protocol. 

6. All elements must have been photographed by the entrant and images submitted must be 100% photographic in origin. The use of stock images, clip art or imagery generated or modified in any way by Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not permitted.

7. Images must have been taken on or after 1 January 2025. If the EXIF metadata attached to an image shows the image was captured before 1 January 2025, the entry may be disqualified. Where necessary, the judges may request access to the raw file to confirm authenticity. Failure to produce original image files may result in disqualification. Competition organisers reserve the right to disqualify an image if the photographic integrity of a submitted entry cannot be verified.

8. Images should not include watermarks or other branding. The competition organiser reserves the right to disqualify any entry with a watermark or other branding.

9. Images should not include frames or borders. The competition organiser reserves the right to disqualify any entry with a frame or border, or to remove frames or borders prior to shortlisting and judging.

Entry specifications 

10. The following format should be used for entries.

• Each entry should be a single photograph. 
• Image format: JPEG (.jpg or .jpeg).
• Image size: 3,000 pixels maximum on the longest edge. Full-size images will be used for shortlisting and judging, however, Lower-resolution images (620 pixels) may be displayed on the website and in other digital mediums.
• File size: 10MB maximum per image.
• Watermarks: Do not include watermarks or other branding on your images.

Copyright

11. Each photographer retains copyright of their images. The entrant provides Understanding Animal Research Oceania and our media partners a limited-use authorisation to display, print, and distribute their photographs for the purpose of promoting Research Animal Photography Awards 2026. Images will be credited with the name of the photographer if used for those purposes.

12. Shortlisted entries agree to a limited-use authorisation for UAR Oceania, our sponsors and distribution partners to display, print and distribute their photographs in order to promote the competition. This will include an exhibition of the images, and potential publication through our media partner.  

13. This competition aims to share excellent photographs and ethical animal research practices in the context of their research. As such, watermarked shortlisted entries will be shared openly in an Animal Research Image Bank and shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0) license following exhibition of winning and shortlisted photographs. 

14. The entrant must be the creator of any images submitted.

15. The entrant must be the copyright owner of any images submitted.

AI noise reduction and sharpening

16. The use of AI noise reduction and sharpening tools is allowed, where the integrity of the original photographic image is maintained and in line with image processing and digital manipulation guidelines for the competition. 

Image processing and digital manipulation

17. Post-production and editing must be the work of the entrant.

18. Images must be single capture, not composites, with the following exceptions: Stitched panoramas, focus stacks and HDR images may be entered (in these cases, multiple images may be captured at the same location within a 12-hour time period, and merged to form a single image). 

19.Images may be processed in post-production to adjust photographic variables only, such as cropping, noise, sharpness, colour, tone and contrast, including dodging and burning and black-and-white conversions. Pixels may not be added or removed, with the following exceptions: Digital lens and perspective corrections and cloning to remove dust spots. 

20. Competition organisers reserve the right to request original image files (this may include RAW files and images taken before or after the entered image) to confirm the photographic authenticity of the image. Competition organisers reserve the right to disqualify an image if they feel it lacks authenticity due to over-manipulation. 

Drone photography

21. Due to the difficulty of assessing the ethical credentials and legality of this type of image, images captured by drone are not eligible to be entered in the Research Animal Photography Awards 2026.

Image categories

22. WILDLIFE: A category for images of wild, non-domestic animals that are not usually bred or kept in captivity. For the purposes of this competition the animals may be in their natural environment or captive on a study.

23. SMALL LAB ANIMALS: This category is for images of small laboratory-housed animals such as rodents, rabbits, guinea pigs and ferrets.

24. LARGE ANIMALS: This category is for images of larger domestic or captive animals such as cattle, sheep, pigs, monkeys, cats, dogs and horses.

25. AQUATIC ANIMALS: This category is for captive bred or housed aquatic animals such as fish, amphibians, decapods, cephalopods or other species. 

26. OPEN CATEGORY: This category is for any images that cannot be entered under the other categories. Judges may reassign images submitted into the OPEN category into another category if they feel it is appropriate. 

Image capture considerations

27. All entries must be taken safely and ethically, in a manner that complies with local laws and regulations and animal ethics research approvals.

28. All animals photographed must be actively involved in a scientific study, and entries will be judged on the quality of science communication as well as photographic skills. 

29.  The scientific study must be carried out under the approval of an Animal Ethics Committee (AEC), or similar, at a recognised educational institution, commercial organisation, or registered non-profit. 

30. When photographing in wilderness and natural areas, habitat disturbance and any impact their presence has on surrounding flora and fauna should be kept to a minimum, and ensure compliance with local conservation guidance and requirements. Live baiting is not allowed and the use of any other means of attracting wild animals other than within the structure of the research protocol is unacceptable. Any bait or attractant used on wildlife must be declared in the entry information.

31. An entrant may be disqualified at any stage, if it is found they have engaged in unethical or illegal practices in the capture and creation of their entry.

Closing date

32. Closing date for entries is 11.59pm AEDT Sunday 26 July 2026.

Judging

33. Entries will be shortlisted by staff of Understanding Animal Research Oceania, (ABN 93661201547), Milton House, 123 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda, VIC 3182, Australia.

34. A panel of leading photographers, science communicators and animal research and welfare experts, selected by the staff of Understanding Animal Research Oceania, will judge the shortlisted entries and vote on a winner in each category. The overall winner will be judged from one of the five category winners.

35. Judges' decisions are final and no further correspondence will be entered into.

Winners' announcement

36. Winners, runners-up and finalists will be announced on www.uaroceania.org in August 2026 and published by our partner organisations. 

Product prizes

37. Product prizes are subject to availability, non-transferable or exchangeable and cannot be taken as cash. If a prize is unavailable, the competition organiser reserves the right to substitute the prize with a prize of similar value or specification.

38. The competition organiser takes no responsibility for prizes damaged or lost in transit. 

General

39. Entry fees, where applicable, are non-refundable.

40. The entrant indemnifies Understanding Animal Research Oceania Ltd, our partners and sponsors against any claim, legal or otherwise, that may arise out of publication of images.

41. Understanding Animal Research Oceania Ltd reserves the right to disqualify any entry deemed to be in breach of these Terms and Conditions.

42. The information in these terms and conditions supersedes information in other parts of this website.

43. By entering images into this competition, the entrant warrants that all of the above Terms and Conditions have been met. Any entry found to breach the above Terms and Conditions will be disqualified and all prize money and product prizes must be returned to Understanding Animal Research Oceania Ltd.