YouTube Shorts Competition

Lights, Camera, Action!

This is a competition for you to make the best short video to communicate your research in a creative and engaging way. We want you to produce a YouTube Shorts video that showcases your area of study and how it connects to space exploration, innovation or research. 

YouTube Shorts are vertical videos that are under 60 seconds in length (similar to Instagram/Facebook/TikTok reels). You can create a short by yourself, or in a group of up to 3 people. The aim of your short is to educate the general public about a space topic and to inspire interest in space research. Whether you’re explaining a complex topic, highlighting new technology, or just sharing something interesting about your work, this is a great chance to communicate your research to a broader audience in a new way.

The ISC will upload your shorts to YouTube, where they will publicly available for people to watch.  The main prize is a $1000 cash prize, given to the short with the most views at the end of the competition. This means that the more engaging your short is, the more likely you are to win. There will also be two $250 cash prizes, one will be decided with a vote by mission control members, and the other will be chosen by the ISC committee for the short that conveys the spirit of the competition the best.

The competition opens on the 29^th of August (29/08/2025), and it will close on the 1^st of October (01/10/2025), so there is around one month to submit your entries. You can submit as many shorts as you would like and they will be uploaded ASAP after submitting, so the earlier you submit the better. After that, there will be a one month wait for the shorts to gain views before the prize winners are chosen. All the winners will be announced during a Mission Control meeting near the end of the year.

For examples and tutorials on how to create engaging YouTube Shorts, check out the help page here.

Also check out the Submission Guidelines, Content Guidelines and Terms and Conditions.

Good luck!

What should the short be about?

This is up to you! Think of some research, project, technology, etc that you are passionate about, and create a video in a way that the general public will like. If you're stuck for ideas, try take a scroll through YouTube shorts for inspiration, or search up a topic that interests you and look through the results for shorts.

How do I gain more views?

Check out the Help Page for tips on making a Short more engaging. For more tips, search up how big creators optimise their shorts and look at a few popular reels to see what techniques they use.

How much creative freedom do I have?

While you have lots of freedom to create your style of video, you will still be representing UWA and the ISC with these videos so the shorts must be related to space and somewhat educational. Submissions that are low quality, not educational, not space related or don’t convey the spirit of the competition will be rejected.

I've never made a YouTube short before, where do I start?

Check out the Help Page for tips on how to make a short from scratch and the different tools you can use. Search for YouTube creators that have made videos on how to create shorts with no experience as well.

Can I use external help (videographers, editors, writers, etc) for the competition?

While they are allowed, the spirit of the competition is to collaborate with fellow Mission Control members. Overly using external help to create these shorts defeats the spirit of the competition and leaves other groups at a disadvantage, so shorts that overly use this external help will be disqualified.