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Wiki Science Competition 2025

[edit]
Central Notice Settings
What is the campaign duration?
  • 1st November 2025 → 15th December 2025
Which projects will you be targeting?
  • Wikipedia & Commons
What languages will you be targeting?
  • Multiple Languages
Do you wish to show banners to Logged In users, Anonymous Users or Both? Do you want to target users with a specific number of edits or average monthly?
  • All users

What countries will your campaign target?

  • Mainly countries with national competitions, but a moderate campaign in the rest of the world, if people want to access the international prizes.

Banner/Campaign Diet:

  • To be determined by Central Notice admin

What is the purpose of the campaign? How will you measure the success of the campaign?

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Description - Wiki Science Competition has taken place once every two years since 2015 and within the same timeframe.

Metrics - The main target group is people studying and/or working in higher education institutions. We are especially interested in people who have never uploaded files, but could add quality content. The banner is intended to be minimalist, and the main metric is the number of files uploaded per country.

What banner(s) will you use? What will be your landing page?

[edit]
Banners - commons:Commons:Wiki Science Competition 2025/CentralNotice

There are two sets of countries. Actively participating countries, which request a more intense campaign, and the rest of the world category. Almost all countries run the competition from November 1st to December 15th and would need banner impressions, especially in the start and end sections of the competition. The international upload form will function until the end of the year. It is not a problem if there are some other banners, as two months should be a sufficient time period for the rest of the countries to have at least some banner impressions during this time.

Countries that need special attention are Argentina, Ireland, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nigeria, South Africa, the USA, and Uzbekistan, as they have more limited possibilities of using other banners. Actively participating countries also include Albania, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Italy, and Poland. Chile has already collected images, Bangladesh is doing it now, and India has a separate campaign request just like Australia and New Zealand. We would make separate requests for Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Malaysia, Mongolia, and Ukraine, as they start later.

Landing Page - https://www.wikisciencecompetition.org/contest/ or local landing page as listed here
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Type of grant - International prizes are provided by a joint agreement of WMEE and WMCH, national competitions are managed by local commitees

Link to grant -

Discussion

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Countries starting on November 1st, that do not have a separate CentralNotice request, are: Albania, Argentina, Greece, Ireland, Kosovo, Nigeria, South Africa, USA, and Uzbekistan. Countries mostly solving it via Sitenotice are Estonia and Finland, but they do not mind some banners on lower rate (as people from those countries also use other language versions and may not notice the Sitenotice banner in local wiki).

Countries that would be separate from this main request;

As this competition has a long history, then there have been banner requests before. To link some main ones, then this is from 2023, this is from 2021, this is from 2019, this is one example from 2017, etc. And some countries have also had local competitions on even-numbered years.

Some details are still changing as the competition official start is approaching and countries update their information. So for now the main goal is to inform that this thing is coming. By the time when someone would be starting to set up the campaign, we would have all the details. We would also create a few more requests for countries that would use different start and end times. And if needed, could create even more requests.

The campaign could run on normal priority with the period around the competition start and competition end on medium-high priority. We do not mind if there are some other campaigns running in that time period as well (there is always something). What is important is that this has good visibility at the start and at the end week and something in between. Especially in countries that have their own local competition.

It would be good to have a little bit of banner impressions on some other countries as well, as a) we are collecting images from all countries and b) as science is international, then it is not rare that a person originating from country x studies at country y and does research in country z. That would help to get a lot more participants if there were some banner impressions in countries where we have not managed to find a local organizer. Not to mention, there are some countries that have actively participated in the past, but are skipping this year for some reason (like Austria, Brazil, Czech Republic, France, Indonesia, North Macedonia, Portugal, Thailand), where there might be interested participants. And there are some other bigger countries (like Canada, Germany, Mexico, the UK) where a lot of files could be submitted just with the help of the banner alone. Kruusamägi (talk) 20:50, 17 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I added the part that Australia & New Zealand have a separate banner request. But is there any progress in this? Kruusamägi (talk) 15:26, 31 October 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@DerHexer: there are currently multiple open requests, including 3 WSC requests that are targeting a start date of November 1st. As you dealt with the WSC request last time, I ask from you (but feel free to involve another administrator if you are busy), might it be possible to move forward with the WSC banner requests? Kruusamägi (talk) 00:32, 1 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, I have been on the road for the past two weeks. I will take a look at the requests this week, having set up most of them by Thursday at the latest. Any other CN admin can help here, of course. :) —DerHexer (Talk) 18:46, 3 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Central Notice admin comments

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@DerHexer: There have been two and a half weeks to comment on this, but no-one has not even bothered (and there are many other open requests that seem rather abandoned). And you could not reasonably expect me to know how you specifically (or anyone else) want it here, especially as this has not been specified in clear manner in any previous years. So please, don't act surpised if you do not like the result. And there is a separate page that has all this info, but well, I will then copy it here as well.
I split the table to two to make it clearer which countries go together, making it easier to avoid mistakes. I did not add the countries that cover it by local banner. I start with the countries that have already started collecting images and add later countries that start on November 15th (as there is more time with them anyway). Kruusamägi (talk) 11:15, 5 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Well, as you know, we are all volunteers here. :) I took a break for exactly these 2.5 weeks. And I can fully understand why other CN admins either didn't want to or were not fully skilled to work on such a complex request. The shortage on CN admins is well known and has been tackled by WMF and volunteer CNAs with trainings in the past year. We see some progress, but the number of requests is increasing, some of them very complex. Furthermore, a few procedures have changed since the new usage guidelines. — In any case, thank you for helping out with structuring the request so that it will maybe only take us 2 instead of 5 hours to create all the different campaigns and banners (different dates, links or other targets require us to create separate campaigns; and we cannot copy campaigns which is well known but hasn't been tackled by WMF developers). Best, —DerHexer (Talk) 19:21, 5 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
And yet, at the same time, those big requests are even more important to deal with, as they affect many countries and a lot more people :P
All the big international campaigns are a bit of a mess. If there are 20+ countries participating (we have 24 countries + "international" cat for the rest of the world), then that means a lot of differences + information keeps changing. Even now there is one update: Bangladesh extended image collecting until November 12th (so this might still need attention). But it is highly likely that there would be many more similar updates.
I have never really understood why WMF doesn't just put staff on this, as this is a highly technical and time-sensitive task. And it does come as a surprise to me that the technical tools for that are so lacking -- like no copying, for real, there should be a massive number of recurring campaigns (as I can't access the stuff you have, so I don't know how that works and what exactly do you need or what options there are).
When this thing has been dealt with, then I will add some more countries that start later. But now the campaign is running in multiple countries, and they need a banner first. Kruusamägi (talk) 21:10, 6 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Kruusamägi: Welcome to my world. ;) I'm telling these things to WMF for the past 10+ years. We've got some more support last and this year, but that stopped. We can only try the best we can do. — That means that I have created all the campaigns asked for in the tables (we cannot connect a country and a landing page for technical reasons; each one requires a new campaign that we cannot clone :) ). Please check each of them thorougly, approve them in the column and ping me when you have completed some or all so that I can enable these. Best, —DerHexer (Talk) 16:15, 7 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Unfortunately I have not managed to review any banners as it seems to hint I do not have the permission. Or is there anything specific I should do?
I will also carry out some additional checks (landing pages etc). Kruusamägi (talk) 21:31, 7 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Kruusamägi: Thanks for the checks and approvals! I have enabled all campaigns from the table. Please ping me when you add more campaigns there that you want us to create. (I will be on the road from Thursday to Tuesday, but will try to help out when I have a bit of time.) Best, —DerHexer (Talk) 16:13, 11 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Kruusamägi and DerHexer: User:Ilario is also a CentralNotice admin and has hekped us since the previous edition. I'm tagging him here, as he mentioned he can help coordinate the request.--Alexmar983 (talk) 21:52, 9 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The request as it's summarized in the table below has been fully handled, we just wait for some approvals before we can enable one or the other campaign. Future help with additional requests on this page is appreciated, of course. Best, —DerHexer (Talk) 10:55, 10 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@DerHexer: I added table 3 for countries that start later. In the last set there are 3 waves of start times. Currently, the countries listed have the campaign already underway. Then, more countries will join, and on December 1st, the last countries will start. Some countries were also changing their start dates, and there were some issues with upload forms. That is why we wanted to start with the banner campaign a bit later. Kruusamägi (talk) 00:32, 19 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Kruusamägi: Okay. I have created the three campaigns in the third table, please check and approve them. The fourth campaign will likely be handled by my colleague. — Just ping me for the remaining campaigns when they are ready. I should be available until mid-December on a daily base from now. Best, —DerHexer (Talk) 18:43, 19 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@DerHexer: I confirm Poland. @Alexmar983:, please confirm if Italy and Switzerland are fine to go like this or if there needs to be some changes. Kruusamägi (talk) 23:51, 19 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Yup, I have seen Poland earlier today and activated the campaign. Best, —DerHexer (Talk) 10:57, 20 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@DerHexer: I added Malaysia. A few more to add soon (like Spain starts on December 1st).
@Alexmar983: please confirm if Italy and Switzerland. Kruusamägi (talk) 19:17, 25 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Kruusamägi: I have created the campaign for Malaysia and look forward to your approval (and the one for Italy and Switzerland). Best, —DerHexer (Talk) 09:47, 26 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@DerHexer: I confirm all 3. Kruusamägi (talk) 19:41, 26 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
All three enabled. Best, —DerHexer (Talk) 19:50, 26 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@DerHexer: I now added Spain. Kruusamägi (talk) 19:09, 30 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Hi @Kruusamägi and @DerHexer,
Currently the WMF fundraising banner campaign is also running and we are experiencing some problems with our data collection on the banners (Phab task). In order to figure out what is going on we will need to take the banners for the Wiki Science competition out for logged out users. I hope this is ok and apologies for this. I will be in touch once we know for how long (hopefully not long) they will be down. Thank you so much for your understanding. Best JBrungs (WMF) (talk) 15:09, 2 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Kruusamägi: Please check the Spanish campaign and approve it. Best, —DerHexer (Talk) 22:29, 2 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@DerHexer: all good to go. Also, a Finnish competition might need a small boost. Something similar to the Estonian banner (i.e people would see banner if they are from Finland, but visiting English Wikipedia). So I added this as well. Kruusamägi (talk) 22:52, 2 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@DerHexer: I now also added Philippines. Kruusamägi (talk) 20:59, 4 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Kruusamägi: Please approve both. —DerHexer (Talk) 23:56, 5 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@DerHexer: All good to go. Thank you! Kruusamägi (talk) 01:15, 6 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Enabled. —DerHexer (Talk) 07:24, 6 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@DerHexer: there is now also one for the United Kingdom (they will start on December 10th). And there is competition ongoing in Kazakhstan, but they have not yet provided any information about banner. And some countries might ask for deadline extensions. Kruusamägi (talk) 23:12, 8 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Hi all,
Can you hold on the UK one until we have figured out what is going on with our data (with regards to fundraising). It is fine to enable it for logged in users but not for logged out users at this stage. I will let you know once we know more. Thank you so much! Best, JBrungs (WMF) (talk) 05:57, 9 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Kruusamägi and JBrungs (WMF): I have created the campaign and banner only for logged-in users. Please check and approve it, then I will enable it. Best, —DerHexer (Talk) 12:12, 9 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
This sounds good to me. I have no idea what to look out for so as long as it is only for logged in users in the UK I think we are good. cc. @SPatton (WMF) and @Pcoombe (WMF). JBrungs (WMF) (talk) 12:28, 9 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@DerHexer: I prefer if someone else confirmed the UK banner, as they know the local customs better. I also added Kazakhstan now. Kruusamägi (talk) 14:41, 9 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@Kruusamägi: Okay, I will wait for the approval of the UK banner, but have created the campaign and banner for the Kazakh competition. Please approve it. Best, —DerHexer (Talk) 19:06, 11 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@DerHexer: I approve both (as it seems there are no other comments on regarding the UK). I will aslo see if I can get the Kazakh organizer to provide Kazakh translation. Kruusamägi (talk) 15:32, 13 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Both enabled. —DerHexer (Talk) 16:27, 15 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@DerHexer: Kazakh campaign got extention until January 20th. Kruusamägi (talk) 16:16, 27 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@DerHexer noticing here the Kazach banner is not enabled: can I help? Ciell (talk) 11:32, 29 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Sigh, I am pretty sure that it was enabled. Maybe it changed when I extended the duration. But due to the bug, we cannot see in the logs what was changed. I have enabled it (again). Thanks for the ping! —DerHexer (Talk) 11:48, 29 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
It's a very annoying bug, I noticed it as well!
And I also noticed several CN campaign where end times were of when I did CN-administrative work this weekend... strange!
Thanks for the quick reply, and enabling it again! Ciell (talk) 12:03, 29 December 2025 (UTC)[reply]
@DerHexer: @Ciell: The Kazakhstan WSC campaign got extended until January 30th. Might it be possible to extend that banner duration? Kruusamägi (talk) 03:15, 20 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]
A bit late maybe, but I extended it now for you @Kruusamägi. Ciell (talk) 20:00, 26 January 2026 (UTC)[reply]

Table 1

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Countries with separate requests
language country/-ies start date end date banner text landing page separate campaign link? notes (CNA and others)
Ukrainian Ukraine 2025-11-20 2025-12-15 Візьміть участь у конкурсі наукових зображень та змагайтеся за призи! https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Science_Photo_Competition_2025_in_Ukraine CentralNotice/Request/WMF Language Onboarding and Development Experiment v2 DONE
English, Hindi, and other Indian languages (Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi - translations in progress), Anonymous India 2025-11-01 resp. 2025-12-09 2025-11-07 resp. 2025-12-15 for texts see here https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Science_Competition_2025_in_India (which is not translated yet) CentralNotice/Request/Wiki Science Competition India 2025 Commons only; DONE
English, Hindi, and other Indian languages (Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi - translations in progress), Logged-in India 2025-11-01 2025-12-15 for texts see here https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Science_Competition_2025_in_India (which is not translated yet) CentralNotice/Request/Wiki Science Competition India 2025 Commons only; DONE
English Australia, New Zealand 2025-11-17 2025-11-30 Participate in the Wiki Science Photo Competition for Australia & New Zealand (1 Nov - 15 Dec 2025) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Science_Competition_2025_in_Australia_and_New_Zealand CentralNotice/Request/WikiScience Competition Australia & New Zealand 2025 campaign and banner; DONE
Chile CentralNotice/Request/Wiki Science Competition in Chile 2025 DONE
Bangladesh CentralNotice/Request/Wiki Science Competition 2025 in Bangladesh DONE

Table 2

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3 weeks = 1814400 seconds

This request here
language country/-ies start date end date banner text landing page notes (CNA and others) Kruusamägi approval
English any (except for other countries and English language listed below) 2025-11-01 2025-12-15 Participate in the 2025 international science photo competition! https://www.wikisciencecompetition.org/contest/ campaign, banner YES
Estonian Estonia 2025-11-01 2025-12-15 Osale teadusfoto võistlusel! https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikipeedia:Teadusfoto_2025 Only in English wiki; campaign, banner YES
Spanish Argentina 2025-11-01 2025-12-15 ¡Participa en el concurso internacional de fotografía científica Wiki Science Competition 2025 y ayuda a Wikipedia! https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Science_Competition_2025_in_Argentina campaign, banner YES
Greek Greece 2025-11-01 2025-12-15 Διαγωνισμός επιστημονικής φωτογραφίας 2025 στα Wikimedia Commons! https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%92%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%B9%CF%80%CE%B1%CE%AF%CE%B4%CE%B5%CE%B9%CE%B1:%CE%94%CE%B9%CE%B1%CE%B3%CF%89%CE%BD%CE%B9%CF%83%CE%BC%CF%8C%CF%82_%CE%95%CF%80%CE%B9%CF%83%CF%84%CE%B7%CE%BC%CE%BF%CE%BD%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%AE%CF%82_%CE%A6%CF%89%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B3%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%86%CE%AF%CE%B1%CF%82_2025 campaign, banner YES
English Ireland 2025-11-01 2025-12-15 Participate in the 2025 international science photo competition! https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Science_2025_in_Ireland campaign, banner YES
English Nigeria 2025-11-01 2025-12-15 Participate in the 2025 international science photo competition! https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Science_Competition_2025_in_the_Igbo_community campaign, banner (I have changed the text slightly because there is not only the Igbo community in Nigeria) YES
English South Africa 2025-11-01 2025-12-15 Participate in the 2025 international science photo competition! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wiki_Science_Competition_2025_in_South_Africa campaign, banner YES
English USA 2025-11-01 2025-12-15 Participate in the 2025 international science photo competition! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wiki_Science_Competition_2025_in_the_United_States campaign, banner YES
Uzbek, Russian, Karakalpak Uzbekistan 2025-10-25 2025-11-30 Uzbek: Ilmiy fotosuratlar tanlovida ishtirok eting va sovrinlarga ega bo‘ling!
Russian: Конкурс научных фотографий: участвуйте и выигрывайте призы!
Karakalpak: Ilimiy fotosúwretler tańlawında qatnasıń hám sıylıqlarǵa iye bolıń!		 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Science_Competition_2025_in_Uzbekistan campaign, banner YES

Table 3

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3 weeks = 1814400 seconds

This request here
language country/-ies start date end date banner text landing page notes (CNA and others) Kruusamägi approval
Italian Italy 2025-11-20 2025-12-15 Partecipa al concorso di fotografia scientifica Wiki Science Competition 2025! https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Science_Competition_2025_in_Italy campaign, banner YES
Polish Poland 2025-11-20 2025-12-15 Weź udział w międzynarodowym konkursie fotograficznym Wiki Science Competition 2025! https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wiki_Science_Competition_2025 campaign, banner YES
Romanian Romania 2025-11-20 2025-12-15 CentralNotice/Request/Wiki Science Competition 2025 Romania done
English Switzerland 2025-11-20 2025-12-15 Engage in the Swiss Wiki Science Competition 2025 and win national and international prizes! https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Science_Competition_2025_in_Switzerland campaign, banner YES
Malay Malaysia 2025-11-20 2025-12-15 Mari menyertai Pertandingan Sains Wiki 2025! https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Science_Competition_2025_in_Malaysia campaign, banner YES
Spanish Spain 2025-12-01 2025-12-31 ¡Participa en el concurso internacional de fotografía científica Wiki Science Competition 2025 y ayuda a Wikipedia! https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Science_Competition_2025_in_Spain campaign, banner YES
Finnish Finland 2025-11-01 2025-12-15 Osallistu tiedekuvakilpailuun 2025! https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiprojekti:Tiedekuvakilpailu/2025 Only in English wiki
campaign, banner		 YES
English Philippines 2025-12-01 2025-12-31 Participate in the 2025 Wiki Science Photo Competition and win amazing prizes! https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Science_Competition_2025_in_the_Philippines campaign, banner YES
English United Kingdom 2025-12-10 2026-01-10 Participate in the United Kingdom’s Wiki Science Competition! Enter from December 10 until January 10. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Science_Competition_2025_in_the_United_Kingdom campaign, banner YES
Kazakh Kazakhstan 2025-12-10 2025-12-31 Ғылым әлемін сурет арқылы көрсет — фото және видео байқауға қатыс! https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Science_Competition_2025_in_Kazakhstan campaign, banner
Please also provide a translation into Kazakh language for the landing page.		 YES
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