From 2008 Kuipers is supervisor, coach and coordinator of the  iGEM student team Groningen. iGEM is a worldwide competition in the field of synthetic biology between teams of students from all over the world. The team from Groningen won in the annual in Boston (United States) organized international competition several gold medals (2008 to 2016). In 2012, when the team from Groningen became world champion,  the research concerned a study of an alternative method to determine whether food is spoiled: the  Food warden . This method makes use of genetic engineered bacteria responsive to the volatiles of the decomposing meat.  A pigment makes the decomposition visible.