Collaborations in iGEM are important, useful, and advised. They help you meet new people and learn sk**s that you didn't have before or didn't consider relevant. Collaborations can come in many forms. The easiest is contacting other iGEM teams (high school or collegiate) to help you with some part of the project or collaborate together to create something new. For example, before the 2014 iGEM competition, the teams from France decided to meet together in a “French Meet-up” and share their projects and ideas with each other. In this way, the teams were able to receive positive feedback, as well as possible pitfalls of their projects. Furthermore, the Paris Bettencourt team helped make videos for the different French teams, which included short blurbs on the content of their project and a brief introduction to the team. Thus, a collaborative and integrated environment between the different French iGEM teams was formed.
You can collaborate with entities outside of iGEM. This includes approaching industrial or academic professionals to gauge interest in your project and work together to create something interesting. You could collaborate on a game that is somehow related to your project, or a study on a topic concerning your project. Collaboration can also come in the form of advice, or a discussion you have with people outside your team. These types of collaborations serve as a way to get a different perspective on your project.
In order to have a project that is open and rich in nature, it is stressed that you try to collaborate with as many people as possible. As the saying goes, “None of us is as smart as all of us”!