InterSystems "Bringing Ideas to Reality" Contest 2025

Hi Developers,

Following the resounding success of last year's new contest, we decided to repeat it. Please welcome 

🏆 Bringing Ideas to Reality Contest 🏆

Submit an application that implements an idea from the InterSystems Ideas Portal that has status Community Opportunity or Future Consideration, created before the publication of this announcement, and requires doing the actual programming 😉

Duration: November 17 - December 7, 2025 December 14, 2025 (the submission period extended until December 7)

Prize pool: $12,000

The topic

In this contest, we expect applications that implement any idea from the InterSystems Ideas Portal with a status of Community Opportunity or Future Consideration that was created before the publication of this announcement.

General Requirements:

1. The application or library must be fully functional and original. It cannot be a simple import or direct interface to an existing library in another language (with the exception of C++, where creating an IRIS interface requires significant work). It must not be a copy-paste of an existing project, nor include any proprietary code. It can't use the results of reverse engineering of InterSystems or any other company's products. Read more about it here.
2. Only new applications are accepted. 
3. The application should work either on IRIS Community Edition or IRIS for Health Community Edition. Both could be downloaded as host (Mac, Windows) versions from the Evaluation site, or can be used in the form of containers pulled from InterSystems Container Registry or Community Containers: intersystemsdc/iris-community:latest or intersystemsdc/irishealth-community:latest .  
4. The application should be Open Source and published on GitHub or GitLab.  
5. The README file for the application should be in English, contain the installation steps, and contain either the video demo or/and a description of how the application works.
6. Only three submissions from one developer are allowed.
7. Different applications that implement the same idea from different programmers/teams are accepted.

NB. Our experts will have the final say on whether the application is approved for the contest, based on the criteria of complexity and usefulness. Their decision is final and not subject to appeal.

Prizes

1. Experts Nomination - a specially selected jury will determine winners:

🥇 1st place - $5,000 
🥈 2nd place - $2,500 
🥉 3rd place - $1,000
🏅 4th place - $500
🏅 5th place - $300
🌟 6-10th places - $100

2. Community winners - applications that will receive the most votes in total:

🥇 1st place - $1,000 
🥈 2nd place - $600 
🥉 3rd place - $300
🏅 4th place - $200
🏅 5th place - $100

❗ If several participants score the same number of votes, they are all considered winners, and the prize money is shared among the winners.
❗ Cash prizes are awarded only to those who can verify their identity. If there are any doubts, organizers will reach out and request additional information about the participant(s).

Who can participate?

Any Developer Community member, except for InterSystems employees (ISC contractors allowed). Create an account!

Developers can team up to create a collaborative application. 2 to 5 developers are allowed in one team.

Do not forget to highlight your team members in the README of your application – DC user profiles.

Important Deadlines:

🛠 Application development and registration phase:

• November 17, 2025 (00:00 EST): Contest begins.
• December 7, 2025 (23:59 EST): Deadline for submissions.

✅ Voting period:

• December  8, 2025 (00:00 EST): Voting begins.
• December  14, 2025 (23:59 EST): Voting ends.

Note: Developers can improve their apps throughout the entire registration and voting period.

Helpful resources

✓ Example applications:

• vault-link - security solution designed to safeguard sensitive information on InterSystems IRIS environments
• IRIS Global VSCode Editor - VSCode Plug-in to do CRUD operations over InterSystems IRIS Globals
• tz - ObjectScript Time Zone Conversion Library - ObjectScript Time Zone Conversion Library
• docs-intersystems  - InterSystems Class Reference generator
• iris-unit-test-dashboard  - user-friendly dashboard to run & view unit tests
• and others

✓ Templates we suggest starting from:

• iris-dev-template
• Interoperability-python
• rest-api-contest-template
• native-api-contest-template
• iris-fhir-template
• iris-fullstack-template
• iris-interoperability-template
• iris-analytics-template  

✓ For beginners with IRIS and Python:

• InterSystems Embedded Python in glance
• InterSystems IRIS Interoperability with Embedded Python
• Feedback : Using embedded python daily for more than 2 years
• Embedded Python Template

✓ For beginners with IRIS and ObjectScript:

• Build a Server-Side Application with InterSystems IRIS
• Learning Path for beginners

✓ For beginners with ObjectScript Package Manager (IPM):

• How to Build, Test and Publish ZPM Package with REST Application for InterSystems IRIS
• Package First Development Approach with InterSystems IRIS and ZPM

✓ How to submit your app to the contest:

• How to submit an application on Open Exchange 
• How to apply for the contest

Need Help?

Join the contest channel on InterSystems' Discord server or talk with us in the comments section of this post. 

We can't wait to see your projects! Good luck 👍

By participating in this contest, you agree to the competition terms laid out here. Please read them carefully before proceeding.