Award Categories for the Freezer Challenge

Each year, the Freezer Challenge recognizes top laboratories and organizations across four sectors. Awards celebrate leadership in sustainable cold storage management and highlight the achievements of participating teams.

Eligibility

When registering for the Freezer Challenge, you’ll select the sector most relevant to your lab or organization. This ensures you’re competing against similar peers.

The four sectors are:

• Academia
• Biotech and Pharma
• Government
• Clinical, hospital, private research, and other

If you’re unsure which sector fits your lab, please email us for guidance. For more on how scoring and points are calculated, visit our How Scoring Works page.

Top Laboratory Awards

Labs also compete within group sizes to ensure fair recognition. During registration, labs must select their group size:

• Fewer than 10 lab members
• 11–25 lab members
• More than 25 lab members
• Shared cold storage resource, core facility, or biorepository

When selecting your lab size, include everyone who regularly works in the lab, not just those participating in the Challenge.

• Compete against similarly sized labs within your sector.
• Winners receive a certificate and are recognized during a virtual awards celebration.
• Winners are highlighted in Lab Manager magazine.

Important:

To compete for a Top Lab Award, your lab must submit a single, individual scoresheet.

Groups submitting scoresheets with multiple labs combined are not eligible for Lab Awards but can still qualify for Organization Awards. Entire departments, R&D facilities, and branches submitting combined scoresheets are not eligible for Top Lab Awards.

Top Organization Awards

Top Organization Awards recognize research institutions that achieve the greatest collective impact. Scores from all labs within an organization are automatically combined to determine the Top Organization in each sector.

Top Organization Award Highlights

• Winners receive a commemorative plaque.
• Organizations are featured in an online Lab Manager magazine article.
• A representative from each winning organization is invited to attend the I2SL Conference Awards Luncheon. The I2SL Awards Luncheon is held each fall during the annual I2SL Conference.