2026 Hidden Science Competition

The Hidden Science Competition is a follow-on to Astera’s Metascience Essay Competition . One recurring theme surfaced by the essay competition is the substantial quantity of useful science that is executed and never shared. For example, null results, confusing findings, abandoned directions, one-off datasets, and standardization work often hold real scientific value but don’t fully see the light of day.

Astera’s Hidden Science Competition will provide awards to graduate students who want to publish data, methodologies, results, code, or other useful scientific information from their Master’s or Ph.D. research that they might not have otherwise.

For decades, the main metric of success in the scientific ecosystem has centered on traditional journal publications, which pushes researchers to publish polished, positive narratives rather than the fuller record of what actually happened over the course of their work. High-quality data, null results that contextualize findings, and reproducible code and methodologies are often left out. These artifacts are often very useful but “hidden.”

Because of this disconnect between journal publications and the full body of information collected throughout the scientific process, many informative outputs never get shared. This issue is particularly prevalent in scientific fields with a major wet lab component, such as the life sciences, because data collection and methodologies done by hand require more dedicated time to properly explain and curate.

This long-standing problem has become even more consequential with the growing role of advanced computational methods such as AI in scientific discovery. Many of the essays that discussed the importance of unpublished scientific information align with the above rationale: enabling future discovery increasingly depends on a larger quantity of data and information that are machine-readable and comprehensive. AI has raised the stakes considerably, since information left out of journal publications is often relevant for future computational models.

In this competition, we will provide cash awards for graduate researchers who have useful research artifacts that are hidden away in their lab notebooks or servers, and have never been published. This competition will help to unearth some of that unpublished information and also help early-career researchers understand the importance of publishing all scientific information. We also hope the competition will motivate scientists to publish more beyond traditional peer-reviewed scientific journals in order to accelerate progress and expand societal impact.

The Hidden Science competition invites graduate researchers in life sciences fields to submit a brief proposal that outlines how and why they would like to publish some aspect of research that would not normally be published in a traditional peer-reviewed journal.

Please note that not all unpublished information is equally worth surfacing. More data is not always better. We’re looking for the subset of hidden useful work that you believe carries real scientific impact but that current incentives leave unshared. The strongest submissions will make that case explicitly rather than relying on the mere fact of being unpublished.

Your submission should be a summary of a full, longer-format technical publication. This summary should:

• Explain exactly what research results you plan to publish and your original rationale for generating them.
• Explain how your publication is a valuable contribution to the ecosystem of knowledge.
• Explain why this research has not been published up to this point.
• Lay out how you plan to publish it in accordance with Astera’s Open Science Policy, using non-legacy publication venues.

• A result or series of results that are reproducible, but either null or unusual.
• The data, methodologies, and results from a project that hit a dead end, whether due to technical, alignment, or bandwidth issues.
• A high-quality, well-curated dataset that did not lead to a specific outcome, but is rich in background information and could serve as a useful standard or control.
• A high-quality dataset with clear rationale and metadata that you believe is useful but didn’t have the time to analyze or put to use.
• A coding pipeline that helped you accomplish a particular laboratory- or information-based task to enable faster research processes or reduce researcher burden in some way.
• A well-annotated laboratory methodology that could be useful for others who are working in the field.

• Information that is already published, or mostly published, in the scientific literature (note: if a small part is published, like a subset of a fuller dataset, that is acceptable, but please use reasonable judgment in meeting the spirit of the competition).
• Data or results that you are planning to publish at a future date as a part of a larger scientific narrative.
• Data, methods, or results that are not machine-readable or well-curated.
• Code that failed due to technical errors and is not usable.
• Proposals to generate new data or run new experiments. This competition is for publishing information that already exists.

• Applicants must be graduate researchers in the life sciences within approximately 1 year of their degree (before or after) as of the date of their initial competition proposal submission.
• Applicants must include in their submissions a letter from the relevant research advisor confirming eligibility and granting permission to publish.
• Individuals and teams may submit multiple entries but can win only one prize. For logistical simplicity in the case of team entries, the prize will be awarded to a single designated lead. Multiple prizes can be awarded in cases where there are multiple teams with overlapping authors but different lead authors.
• If you want to publish information that includes work from multiple researchers, please ensure that you assign credit to all researchers involved. Additionally, please make sure all involved researchers agree to having the work published. You may choose to provide a submission as a team as per the instructions in the previous bullet.
• Submission length: up to the equivalent of 1 single-spaced page. Additional figures and references may be included beyond the 1-page limit. While this will not be strictly enforced given the range of formats allowed, we will triage substantially longer submissions as they are hard to fairly compare with shorter ones.

Step 1: Proposal submission — applicants will submit their 1-page proposal based on the details and criteria outlined above. The proposal should be a summary of a full, longer-format technical publication as described above.

Step 2: Invited contract work — A subset of proposals will be awarded a flat-fee contract of $10,000 cash compensation to each lead submitter to execute the full publication as laid out in their application, at a venue consistent with Astera’s open science recommendations.

Details of the awards include: At least 5 contracts at $10,000 each, with a 6-week contract term, payable upon completion (release of the full publication).

Completed publications must be publicly posted and maintained for at least one year (preferably indefinitely), consistent with Astera’s Open Science Policy.

Submissions will be evaluated by a panel whose members have scientific experience and an explicit interest in the future of scientific data and publishing. Judges will evaluate submissions based on a number of criteria including meeting eligibility requirements, the quality of the submission (is the publication idea well-articulated, scientifically sound, and focused on the principles of open science), and the plan for publication.

Applications will be judged by a panel that includes: Steven Moss and Seemay Chou with other knowledge experts included on an as-needed basis.

Prizes are a one-time award and not a grant to support future research, study, or services beyond the scope of the 6-week contract. Acceptance of a prize does not create any employment or contractor relationship with Astera Institute. We are unable to send prize money to individuals residing in countries sanctioned by the United States. (Details here). Anyone currently affiliated with Astera Institute is not eligible to participate. Submissions must be posted publicly online and submitted via the application form before the August 21 deadline to be considered. Individuals and teams may submit multiple entries but can win only one prize. In the case of team entries, the prize will be awarded to a single designated lead. All decisions are final and made at the discretion of the judging panel, based on the clarity, utility, practicality, and executability of the proposed publication. We reserve the right not to award all prizes if no submission meets our standards, and reserve the right to award additional prizes if the quality of submissions warrants it. Authors retain full ownership over their ideas but grant Astera Institute a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish or reference the initial submissions with appropriate attribution. Prize awards are considered taxable income.

If you have questions about the competition, please visit our rolling FAQ page where we will post and answer questions that we did not address in the solicitation. For all other questions related to the competition, please contact hiddenscience@astera.org.