Bitesize Bio Collaborates with Wellcome to Spotlight Scientific Images in their 2027 Photography Prize
The £52,000 Wellcome Photography Prize 2027 includes a category dedicated to scientific and medical imaging. It is now open for entries, and Bitesize Bio is inviting the bioscience community to submit.
Edinburgh, UK — 14 July 2026: Bitesize Bio is collaborating with Wellcome to help bring the Wellcome Photography Prize 2027 to bioscientists, microscopists and biomedical researchers around the world.
Now open for entries, the Prize marks its 30th year with a global call for images that reveal how health is experienced, represented and understood. With a total prize fund of £52,000, including £10,000 for each category winner, the Prize welcomes entries from professional photographers, self-taught image makers, healthcare workers, people with lived experience, and researchers using scientific and medical imaging to reveal life at extraordinary scales.
Through the collaboration, Bitesize Bio will support the call for entries by sharing the opportunity with its global community of bioscientists. This includes researchers working in microscopy, cell biology, molecular biology, biomedical imaging, and related life science disciplines. The Prize is free to enter and open to anyone, anywhere in the world, and no affiliation with Wellcome is required.
Why this matters to the Bitesize Bio community
Many scientists create extraordinary images every day, from confocal microscopy and electron microscopy to stained tissue sections, live-cell imaging, and medical imaging workflows. Too often, those images are seen only in lab meetings, publications, posters, or grant applications.
The Wellcome Photography Prize offers a chance to share that work with a much wider audience. Its scientific and medical imaging category celebrates a single image, made using a scientific or medical imaging technique, that captures the wonder of the life sciences and communicates something meaningful about health, biology or discovery. For researchers wondering whether lab-based images belong in the Prize, previous winners include electron microscopy specialist Steve Gschmeissner, whose work revealed microscopic processes linked to heart disease.
“Scientists create striking images every day, but many of those rarely travel beyond papers, posters and presentations. The Wellcome Photography Prize gives researchers a chance to share the beauty, complexity and human relevance of science with a much wider audience. We’re proud to help bring this opportunity to the Bitesize Bio community in the Prize’s landmark 30th year.”
— Nick Oswald, Founder, Bitesize Bio
The £52,000 prize
Entries are invited across three categories: Striking Solo Photography (a single image that captivates, stirs the imagination and starts conversations), A Storytelling Series (three to five photographs that unpack a narrative or explore different perspectives), and The Marvels of Scientific and Medical Imaging (a single image made using a scientific or medical imaging technique).
Each of the three category winners will receive £10,000, with the remaining finalists each receiving £1,000.
Entries are assessed by an internationally recognized judging panel chaired by Sumitra Upham, Associate Director, Curatorial and Public Programs at Wellcome Collection. They will be judged against three criteria: creativity and visual impact, storytelling, and technical excellence.
Bitesize Bio encourages researchers and microscopists to revisit the images they create every day and ask what wider story they could tell.
How to enter
Entries are open from 14 July to 21 October 2026. Early submissions are encouraged.
Enter before the 21 October here: www.wellcome.org/photoprize
About Bitesize Bio: Bitesize Bio is an online community and educational media platform for bioscientists working at the bench. Through practical articles, webinars, resources and community-led content, it helps researchers build skills, solve experimental problems and get their most important work done with more confidence.
About the Wellcome Photography Prize: The Wellcome Photography Prize champions powerful visual storytelling about health, science and human experience around the world. First established in 1997 as the Biomedical Image Awards, it became the Wellcome Image Awards in 2008 and the Wellcome Photography Prize in 2019. It now runs on a biennial cycle. The Prize showcases scientific and medical imaging alongside human-centered photography, aiming to spark conversation, strengthen people’s connection to science, and build hope in its potential to contribute to better health.
About Wellcome: Wellcome supports science to solve the urgent health challenges facing everyone. It funds discovery research into life, health and wellbeing, and is taking on three worldwide health challenges: mental health, infectious disease, and climate and health. www.wellcome.org
Follow the Prize: Instagram @wellcomephotoprize · www.wellcome.org/photoprize
Media contacts
- Bitesize Bio: Zara — zara@bitesizebio.com · +44 (0)7593 699531
- Wellcome Photography Prize (via Sutton): Sophie — sophiebl@suttoncomms.com · +44 (0)7452 787176
- Wellcome media office: mediaoffice@wellcome.org · +44 (0)20 7611 8866
Press kit available from here: https://egnyte.suttoncomms.com/fl/fqdmkHgcDvTx
