FisioCómic is a comic competition about physiological processes, held since 2021 and aimed at students enrolled in any degree programme at Spanish universities where Physiology is part of the curriculum. The competition is jointly organised by the Universitat de València, the CEU San Pablo University of Madrid, and the Autonomous University of Madrid. Its main objective is to challenge students to communicate complex ideas using the language of graphic storytelling. Comics are a key communication tool in the field of health, where the public needs access to information that is both rigorous and accessible.
To this end, each university will appoint one or more coordinators who will select up to a maximum of four comics from their students to be submitted to the competition (maximum number of entries per institution). Comics must be submitted in groups of between two and five students and may be created using any technique, but images without proper authorship or generative artificial intelligence tools may not be used. The final comic proposal must be submitted in PDF format, accompanied by a title and an explanatory summary of no more than 200 words. In addition, a Creative Commons licence must be included to allow free distribution with attribution, but without commercial use.
The competition will be decided in two stages: in the first stage, coordinators from each university will score the best comics from 1 to 5, excluding those submitted by their own institution; in the second stage, the 10 highest-scoring comics will be evaluated by a jury made up of professionals in comics, design, and science communication. There will be three prizes: first prize of €600, second prize of €300, and third prize of €200. In addition to the cash award, each prize-winning team will receive membership for one member in the Spanish Society of Physiological Sciences, which will cover the membership fee for a period of two years, as well as the opportunity to attend the society’s congress to present their FisioCómic. Furthermore, the 10 finalist teams will receive a collection of Graphic Medicine comics. All comics will be published on the UCC+i UV website, and the award ceremony will take place at an event held at the Universitat de València, attended by the prize winners and the coordinators from each institution.
PREVIOUS EDITIONS
