Terms and Conditions (T&C)

1. Publisher

This Challenge website is owned and operated by the EU-funded project FRANCIS. The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101006220.

 

2. Subject

FRANCIS provides an innovation platform service accessible at https://francis-challenges.agorize.com (henceforth called the “Challenge website”).

These Terms and Conditions (T&Cs) govern your access to and use of the Challenge website and its Services.

To open an account on the Challenge website, you must tick a box, and confirm that you have read and accepted these T&Cs, which form a legally binding contract between you and FRANCIS.

If you wish to participate in a specific Challenge, you will be asked to review and accept the rules applicable to the specific Challenge.

Please read the following carefully. If you do not accept these T&Cs, then do not use the Challenge website. We may amend these T&Cs at any time by posting an updated version to this web page and notifying you before the amended T&Cs take effect.

To improve your user experience, we may also modify, without prior notice, the structure and design of our Challenge website, as well as some Services or content. If the modification has an impact on your user experience, we will explain to you how the new feature works.


3. Definitions

In this document,

  • “Account” means the account that must be created to become a Member and access the Services offered by the Challenge website;

  • "Brief" means the concise statement of the instructions and guidelines for a Challenge prepared by an Organiser;

  • "Challenge" means an invitation for Proposals to solve a specific problem or provide ideas issued by a Organiser. The Organiser may offer rewards for the selected Proposals submitted via the Challenge website by a Member registered to participate in the Challenge, and in accordance with the Challenge Rules;

  • “Challenge Rules” refers to the rules applicable to a Challenge and which are binding between the Organiser and each Challenge Participant. In the event of discrepancies or contradictions with the T&Cs, the Challenge Rules shall apply;

  • “Community” refers to all Members of the Challenge website;

  • “Proposal” means all submissions, original ideas, documents or other materials (such as presentations, videos, etc.) uploaded to the Challenge website by Members in response and as a solution to a specific Challenge;

  • “Member” means any individual having an Account on the Challenge website;

  • “Services” means all products, services, content, features, technologies or functions delivered by us via the Challenge website; and

  • "Organiser" means the organisation that organises a Challenge and submits a Brief to Members via the Challenge website (EU-project FRANCIS).

 

4. Opening an Account

A. Conditions

You must be at least 18 years old to use our Services and with full legal capacity, and by opening an Account you declare that you meet these conditions.

You can participate in English, German or Spanish. Employees and representatives of the FRANCIS project partners and the members of their families cannot participate in the challenge. By opening an Account on the Challenge website, you declare that you also meet this condition.

B. Creating an Account

The Website allows Members to view and enrol in Challenges and to interact with other Members or the Organiser through message boards, chat, email and messaging. You can view the Briefs and Challenges if you are not registered, but you cannot enrol in or participate in a Challenge without first opening an Account and becoming a Member.

To create your Account, please complete the mandatory fields in the registration form (e.g. name, email and password). An Account activation link will be emailed to you; your Account is activated once you click on the link.

To open an Account, you must have read and accepted these T&Cs and our Privacy Policy.

C. Accuracy of Account

You agree that your profile Account contains accurate and true information, and that you will update it as needed.

D. Password

You are responsible for keeping your Account password confidential. You agree to inform us if there is an unauthorized use of your Account or a security breach, such as loss or theft of your login information.

 

5. Services

The Challenge website is an online innovation platform on which Organiser can create and post Task descriptions and Challenges in which Members can participate, subject to the specific conditions of each Challenge as set out in the Challenge Rules.

As a Member:

  • you may access a personalised space on the Challenge website that contains your profile, allows you to view the Challenges in which you have enrolled, and to communicate and exchange messages, including by email and chat, with Members, Organisers and mentors;

  • you may register for Challenges, provided you meet the conditions of the Challenge Rules; 

  • you may participate in a Challenge individually or by creating or joining a team, as specified in the Challenge Rules;

  • you may upload Proposals in response to a Challenge, as specified in the Challenge Rules;

  • you may retrieve the data and Proposals that you submitted during your participation in a specific Challenge, as specified in the Challenge Rules.

     

Organisers may offer awards for the selected Proposals submitted by Members registered to participate in a Challenge, in accordance with the Challenge Rules.

The Organisers are solely responsible for assessing all Proposals and independently decide, in accordance with their own criteria, on the selected Proposals of a Challenge. Decisions made by the Organisers are considered final.

 

6. Content posted by you on the Challenge website

You may communicate with other Members, mentors or the Organisers via the Challenge website. Any information you provide on the Challenge website, both during registration and use of the Services (such as, public message board postings, emails, chats, Proposals, etc.) is subject to the following:

  • You agree that content posted by you will be accurate and will not: (i) infringe any third party’s copyright, trademark, patent or other proprietary rights or rights of publicity or privacy, or (ii) violate any law (including export control, unfair competition, anti-discrimination or false advertising).

  • Regarding Proposals, you guarantee that (i) you are the owner or authorised user of the intellectual property contained in your Proposals and that (ii) you are not required to transfer your rights over the Proposals to a third party pursuant to an employment relationship or other contract; or that (iii) you have obtained any necessary authorizations from your employer or co-contracting party before submitting the Proposals. At any time, you may be asked to make legally binding warranties and representations to the Organisers in relation to a Proposal or any specific information that you submit such as proof of identity.

  • You are solely responsible for the content that you publish or upload to the Challenge website, and for the transfer of technologies or information with which you are involved. FRANCIS expressly disclaims any liability or responsibility thereto.


7. Member Rules of Conduct on the Challenge website

There are certain rules that apply to Members. When using our Challenge website, you agree:

  • to not submit to us, the Organiser, or other Members, mentors, or the Jury false, misleading, malicious or fraudulent information;

  • to not post content of a defamatory, injurious, obscene, pornographic, vulgar, offensive, aggressive, uncalled-for, violent, threatening, harassing, racist or xenophobic nature, or with sexual connotations, inciting violence, discrimination or hatred, encouraging illegal activities, or more generally content that is contrary to good morals or the purposes of the Challenge website;

  • to not infringe the rights and image of FRANCIS, such as its intellectual property rights;

  • to not open more than one Account on the Challenge website or open an Account in the name of a third party;

  • to not use the Account of another Member;

  • to not try to bypass the Challenge website, such as by trying to contact or send a Organiser your Proposals outside of the Challenge website;

  • to not transfer data that contains viruses, worms, Trojan horses or any computer file or program that could interrupt, destroy or limit the functioning of any computer or network linked directly or indirectly to the Challenge website;

  • to not use any device, software or routine that could interfere with the proper working of the Challenge website or which is intended to damage, interfere with, intercept or expropriate any system, data or personal information;

  • to not to take any action (such as, spamming) that imposes an unreasonable load on our Challenge website;

  • to not violate the principle of confidentiality, which may exist within the framework of a Challenge; and

  • to, more generally, not to act in a way that violates the law or breaches these T&Cs.


8. Confidentiality

Within the framework of a Challenge, you may be required to maintain certain information confidential.

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold FRANCIS harmless, from and against all claims, actions or demands, liabilities, and settlements, including, without limitation, reasonable legal fees, arising from your unauthorized and prohibited disclosure of confidential information.

 

9. Intellectual Property Rights

A. Member grant of license to FRANCIS

For the purposes of our Challenge website and to enable the Services, you grant FRANCIS a non-exclusive license, free of charge, for the entire world and for the duration of your contractual relationship with us, to use the content and data that you submit on the Challenge website. We will not share data such as your contact details but might take your team as an example in our communication.

B. FRANCIS IP Rights / Limited License

This Challenge website is controlled and operated by FRANCIS. Our proprietary software, and our materials on the Challenge website, including logos, trademarks, trade names, images, text, illustrations, audio, video files and the selection, coordination and arrangement of such materials, are protected by copyrights, trademarks, service marks, or other proprietary rights which are either owned by us or owned by other parties who have licensed their intellectual property to us, and all other trademarks, service marks, and trade names used on the Challenge website are the property of their respective owners.

Subject to being a Member, FRANCIS grants you a non-exclusive, revocable, personal and non-transferable license, to use the Challenge website, for your personal and private use, on a non-commercial basis and in compliance with the purposes of the Challenge website.

You are prohibited from any other use or exploitation of the Challenge website and Services, and their content, without the prior written permission of FRANCIS. Notably, you are prohibited from:

  • reproducing, adapting, distributing, publicly representing and disseminating the Challenge website, the Services, Briefs, Challenges and the content of the Challenge website;

  • extracting or attempting to extract (notably using data mining robots or any other similar data collection tool) a substantial part of the data of the Challenge website;

  • copying, modifying, creating a derivative work of, reverse engineering, reverse assembling or otherwise attempting to discover any source code;

  • modifying or attempting to modify the Challenge website in any manner or form, except that you have the right to modify your self-generated content on the Challenge website;

  • framing or utilizing framing techniques to enclose any trademark, logo, or other proprietary information (including Challenge descriptions, images, text, page layout, or form);

  • using any meta tags or any other "hidden text" with FRANCIS’ name or trademarks.

Any unauthorized use by you which contravenes the above terminates the license granted by us.

All new versions, updates or changes to our Challenge website, Services or related content shall be subject to these T&Cs. FRANCIS reserves all rights not expressly granted by the present T&Cs.

C. Remedies

If you believe that your legitimate Intellectual Property Rights have been violated by the introduction of certain content on the Challenge website, you must notify FRANCIS and provide us with the following:

  • Your contact information. If the claim is on behalf of a third party, please include proof of your right to represent the third party;

  • Identification of the specific Challenge website content that you consider is protected by Intellectual Property Rights as well as its location on the Challenge website (indicating the URL link);

  • Accreditation of the aforementioned Intellectual Property Rights; and reasons for the supposed violation.


10. Role of FRANCIS/ Limitation of liability

FRANCIS has no control over the behaviour of Members, mentors or other users of its Challenge website. We do not control the information provided by others that is made available through the Challenge website; other user’s information may be inaccurate.

Members act under their sole and full responsibility.

In its capacity as an intermediary, FRANCIS cannot be held liable if a Challenge fails to occur as intended, such as because of:

  • erroneous information communicated by FRANCIS in the Task description or Challenge, or by any other means, with regard to the Challenge and its terms;

  • cancellation or modification of a Challenge by FRANCIS;

  • non-payment of the Grant or withholding of other rewards by FRANCIS;

  • the behaviour of its Members during, before or after a Challenge or at any other time.

We are not responsible for the content or use of any Proposals, for the Member’s lack of success in a Challenge, for any damage caused to a Member by Organisers, for any indirect damage such as financial loss, loss of business or moral damage that a Member may suffer through its use of the Challenge website or by participating in a Challenge.

You agree to look solely to the Organiser for any claims you may have regarding information provided by the Organiser. If you have a dispute with another Member, you hereby release FRANCIS from all claims of any kind arising out of such dispute.

FRANCIS shall not be liable to you for any damages, claims, expenses or other costs you incur as a result of third-party claims related to your use of the Services. Under no circumstances, shall FRANCIS be liable for any indirect damages, or for any damages totalling more than one hundred (100) Euros, assuming that such damages have been duly proven. You agree that you will be responsible for, and at FRANCIS’ request, defend FRANCIS from third party claims arising out of information you provide to FRANCIS for publication or any breach by you of these T&Cs.

You agree that regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim or cause of action related to your use of the Services must be filed within one (1) year after such claim or cause of action arises or be forever barred.


11. Account suspension, restrictions of access and termination

You can terminate your contractual relations with FRANCIS and close your Account at any time by clicking on the “Delete your profile” tab on your profile page or by contacting FRANCIS. The termination takes effect immediately.

If you breach your undertakings as set out in these T&Cs or if we have genuine reason to believe that the security and integrity of FRANCIS, its Members, Organisers, or third parties are at risk, we reserve the right to:

  • immediately terminate these T&Cs binding you and FRANCIS; and

  • temporarily or permanently suspend your Account.

 

When this is necessary, you will be notified of such measure to enable you to respond. FRANCIS will decide, at its sole discretion, whether to lift the measures put in place.

 

 

12. Incidental findings

In the course of the challenge, our Facilitators may come across topics they find difficult to deal with. This mainly concerns findings beyond the scope of our project, such as serious problems of Participants that are not related to the challenge (Incidental Findings). For example, a person who works in a hotel could have serious financial problems. Or an elderly person could have problems running their household. In this case, the Facilitator will consult our Regional Teams. They will discuss the situation with the ethics managers and try to help (if needed).

 

13. Personal Data

We collect and process some of your personal data (see Privacy Policy, chapter “How we use your personal data”).

In using the Challenge website and registering as a Member, you acknowledge and accept the processing of your personal data by us as set out in our Privacy Notice.


14. Operation, availability and functionalities of the Platform

We shall try as far as possible to maintain the Challenge website continually accessible. But access to the Challenge website or the use of certain features may be suspended or disrupted without notice, due to technical maintenance, migration, or updates, or owing to outages or constraints linked to the network or for other technical reasons.

We reserve the right to modify or suspend all or part of your access to the Challenge website or its features, at our sole discretion, temporarily or permanently.

 

15. Hyperlinks

Our Challenge website contains links to other websites. We do not control those websites and are not responsible for their content. By including these links, we are not endorsing the material on those websites or implying any association with their operators.

 

16. Modification of the T&Cs

These T&Cs and the documents integrated by reference express the entire agreement between you and FRANCIS relative to your use of the Challenge website and the Services.

FRANCIS may modify these T&Cs to adapt to its technological and commercial environment, and to comply with the law. Any modification to these T&Cs will be published on the Challenge website with mention of the effective date, and you will be notified by FRANCIS before the changes take effect.

 

17. Applicable law and dispute resolution

These T&Cs are governed and construed in accordance with French law, without giving effect to any principles of conflicts of law.

We invite you to submit to us any complaints that you might have, using the contact information provided above. If a contractual dispute between you and FRANCIS cannot be amicably resolved, you may use mediation free of charge, and may consult https://www.economie.gouv.fr/mediation-conso to appoint a mediator.

If the dispute cannot be settled by mediation, you irrevocably agree to submit all disputes to the jurisdiction of the competent court of Paris, France.

For the exclusive benefit of FRANCIS, FRANCIS shall also retain the right to bring proceedings as to the substance of the matter in the courts of the country of your residence or, where these T&Cs are entered into in the course of your trade or profession, in the country of your principal place of business.

 

18. Webhosting AMAZON WEB SERVICES

Amazon Web Services,

Inc. P.O. Box 81226 Seattle,

WA 98108-1226

http://aws.amazon.com

 

19. Credit for Challenge website design and Publisher Contact

AGORIZE

15 rue Béranger

75003 PARIS

contact@agorize.com

Tel.: (+33) 0 1 55 43 79 45

 

20. Effective Date

03 May 2024