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PETs for Public Health Challenge 

Terms and Conditions

Thank you for your interest in the Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs) for Public Health Challenge (the “Challenge”). The Challenge is hosted by data.org, a fiscally sponsored project of New Venture Fund (“NVF” or “data.org”), and was launched by its partners: Mastercard, Harvard OpenDP,  Pontifical Javeriana University, and Sloan Foundation, all together, the “Challenge Partners”.

Rules

The Rules governing this Challenge (the “Rules”) are stated here. As you participate in the Challenge, you may periodically be asked to recognize your acceptance of these Rules by clicking “accept” at various pages on the data.org website (the “Website”). However, by continuing any use of this Website, you expressly consent to these Rules.

Prizes

By participating in this Challenge in accordance with these Rules, you are eligible to receive various forms of recognition, in-kind support, and grant funding from data.org. In-kind support for Awardees may include, but is not limited to, data science talent, staff training, technical support and consulting, media production, marketing and promotional outreach.

The Challenge will award up to five final winners (each, an “Awardee”) with a combination of grant funding and in-kind support with a combined total value of $50,000 USD (each, an “Award”). Each final Award will be issued pursuant to the terms of a grant agreement between New Venture Fund and the relevant Awardee.

Eligibility criteria 

The Challenge will be an open-closed competition. We welcome applications (each, an “Entry”) will come from a targeted or invited curated list of students (masters, PhDs, post-doc fellows) and faculty and researchers from academic and research institutions. However, all Entries must have a charitable purpose, as defined in Section 501(c)(3) of the internal revenue code, and as further described below.

Organizations are limited to submitting one Entry to the Challenge. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Challenge may consider multiple Entries from large organizations such as universities. Any such Entries must be distinct, without overlap in the scope of the proposals or the project teams. If you are aware that two or more teams within your organization are submitting Entries to the Challenge, please notify us by email at petschallenge@data.org, and include an explanation as to how your team meets the foregoing requirement. Fiscal sponsors may submit more than one application but may only submit one application per fiscally sponsored project.

Ineligible Entities

The data.org Challenge is open to any organization or group from anywhere in the world, except for those from Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Cuba, Iran, Jordan, Russia, Syria, Yemen, North Korea, and Ukraine (Russian-occupied territories). Further, any directors, officers, employees and contractors of the Challenge Partners, and any of their respective subsidiaries and affiliates, immediate family members (spouses, parents, children, siblings and siblings’ spouses, regardless of where they live) or any persons living in the same households of such directors, officers, employees and contractors are ineligible to participate in the Challenge.

Entries from Teams or Coalitions

Organizations may join together as a coalition to submit a single application subject to these Rules. However, Awards to coalitions must be distributed to a single legal entity that will have legal responsibility for executing the coalition’s proposal in accordance with the terms of their grant agreement.

Participants are permitted to use one account only.

Teams are allowed, with a maximum of 3 people.

Strict non-collusion policy. Teams are not permitted to share their insights or findings about the competition data with each other. 

Additional Requirements

  • Your Entry must be submitted in English.
  • Before applying, applicants should email petschallenge@data.org and attend the mandatory virtual Q&A and onboarding.
  • All Entries must comply with these Rules and be submitted in accordance with any deadlines listed on this Website.
  • Your Entry may not contain obscene, defamatory, or illegal content. The Challenge Partners reserve the right to disqualify any Entries that they determine, in their sole discretion, violate this provision.
  • All Entries must have a charitable purpose, as defined in Section 501(c)(3) of the internal revenue code of the United States of America. In order for a project to be charitable under U.S. law, it must (i) have a broad social purpose and benefit and (ii) not result in financial gain to any individual or any non-charitable entity that is more than “incidental and tenuous” to the related social impact. You can read more about the second requirement here.
  • All Entries should reflect the anticipated ownership, use, and/or licensing of any intellectual property resulting from the Challenge or any Challenge Award. To meet the second requirement for charitability above, grant agreements between data.org and any Challenge Awardees that are not 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations may include stipulations relating to such intellectual property. The nature of any such stipulations will be flexible and will consider your project’s unique structure and goals.
  • Challenge Awards may not be used for projects that attempt to: (a) influence the outcome of any domestic or foreign election for public office; (b) support lobbying or other attempts to influence local, state, federal or foreign legislation; (c) conduct any “lobbying activity” as that term is defined under the Lobbying Disclosure Act; or (e) otherwise violate any legal restriction applicable to nonprofit organizations exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”), including any federal, state, local or foreign rule or regulation pertaining to advocacy, lobbying, political activity or government ethics. 

Selection Criteria and Process

Phase 1 (Written proposal evaluation):

Upon submitting Your Entry, the Entry will be subject to an administrative review to ensure compliance with these Rules. Qualified Entries will then be judged based on the following criteria:

  1. Understanding of Differential Privacy/ Privacy-Utility Trade-Off
  2. Usefulness for Epidemiological Research
  3. Innovation and scalability
  4. Responsible Technology and Practicality

In addition to the 6-page proposal using the template we have provided, we will require the following documentation to be included in the proposal submission (on a separate page)

Phase 2 (finalists will be involved in Tools Development):

  • Informed by the outcomes of the Phase 1 assessment, an estimated 3-5 Entrants (who will be required to submit additional documents) will be selected as final Awardees to advance to Phase 2 of the Challenge,
  • Phase 2 will involve Tools development remotely and an eventual 1-week in-person collaborative session to apply the tools developed to data – where the top 3 tools will be declared. By participating in the Challenge, you agree to be bound by the final decision of the Challenge judges.

Treatment and Use of Intellectual Property

Applicant Representations and Warranties

You, in your individual capacity or on behalf of your organization and/or coalition, represent and warrant the following with respect to your Entry:

  1. You and/or your organization, as applicable, are the sole author, creator, and owner of your Entry and the contents thereof. If your Entry includes any third-party content or intellectual property that you and/or your organization, as applicable, do not own (such as open-source code) (“Third-Party Content”), you represent and warrant you possess all required licenses and other rights necessary to use such Third-Party Content fully as described in your Entry, and to provide the Challenge Partners with all necessary licenses to such Third-Party Content for purposes of operating and promoting the Challenge. In the event you do not possess and/or cannot provide all such rights to any Third-Party Content contained in your Entry, the Challenge Partners reserve the right, in their sole discretion, to disqualify your Entry.
  2. Your Entry and the contents thereof are not the subject of any actual or threatened litigation or claim.
  3. Your Entry does not and will not violate or infringe upon the intellectual property rights, privacy rights, publicity rights, or other legal rights of any third party.
  4. Your Entry does not and will not contain any harmful computer code (sometimes referred to as “malware,” “viruses” or “worms”).
  5. Your Entry and any use of your Entry that can be reasonably anticipated by submitting it to this Challenge does not and will not violate any applicable laws or regulations, including, without limitation, applicable export control laws and regulations of the United States and other jurisdictions.

License to Entry

By submitting an Entry to the Challenge, you hereby grant the Challenge Partners each a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, modify, and display your Phase 1 Entry, in any way and through any media whatsoever, including, but not limited to, on the data.org website, in data.org press releases or promotions, and through sharing with data.org partners, for charitable and non-commercial purposes only such as research and informing opportunities for their charitable initiatives (the “Entry License”). Under this Entry License, data.org and the Challenge Partners may profile your Entry as an example of the great potential of data science for social impact, and may share your Entry with other organizations in the Challenge Partners’ networks that may wish to support your work. However, the Challenge Partners will have no obligation to do so.

If you do NOT wish to grant the Challenge Partners an Entry License, at Phase 1, you will have an opportunity to opt-out of it, and your choice will not affect your Entry’s chances for award selection. However, please note that if your Entry is selected to advance to Phase 2 of the Challenge, you must grant the Challenge Partners each an Entry License in order to continue participating in the Challenge.

Even with the licenses above, the Challenge Partners will not share your Entries or any of the information or materials contained therein without first notifying you and providing you with an opportunity to decline such sharing. 

You will not receive any compensation or credit for use of your Entry arising out of the foregoing licenses. Data.org is not obligated to use, share or display your Entry for any purpose, even if you have been selected as an Awardee. Personal data and financials you and/or your team provide while participating in this Challenge will not be shared or displayed and will only be used by Challenge organizers and their agents internally, for the administration and operation of this Challenge.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, data.org may display the names of individuals and individual team members who are Challenge Finalists and Awardees on the data.org Website.

Additional Terms

  • By submitting an Entry on behalf of an organization, the applicant represents and warrants that they are authorized to do so. Applicants selected as a finalist to participate in Phase 2 will be required to provide formal documentation of this authorization before proceeding to the phase.
  • This Challenge is subject to and governed by the laws of Washington, District of Columbia in the United States of America.
  • By submitting your Entry, you (and, if applicable, your organization and/or coalition) release, discharge and hold harmless the Challenge Partners and their respective employees, agents, officers, directors and representatives (“Representatives”) from any and all claims, liability losses, costs and expenses (each, a “Claim”) arising out of or relating to your participation in the Challenge and/or your acceptance and use of any Award. With respect to the Challenge, the Challenge Partners assume no responsibility for any errors, omissions, interruptions, deletions, defects, or delays in operation or transmissions; communication line failures; theft or destruction of, or unauthorized access to, Challenge Entries or entry forms; or alteration of Entries or entry forms. You acknowledge and agree that the Challenge Partners are not responsible for any problems with or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer online systems, servers or providers, computer equipment, software, failure of any Entry to be received on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or any website, human errors of any kind, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to competitors’ or any other persons’ computers related to or resulting from participation, uploading or downloading of any materials related to this Challenge.
  • If for any reason the Challenge is not capable of operating as planned, due to infection by computer virus, bugs, worms, Trojan horses, denial of service, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes beyond the control of the Challenge Partners that corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of this Challenge, data.org reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual(s) or organization(s) who tamper with the process, and/or to cancel, terminate, modify, or suspend the Challenge without liability to Challenge participants.
  • data.org reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify any competitor who is found to be tampering with the entry process or the operation of the data.org Challenge; to be acting in violation of these Rules; to be acting in an unfair or disruptive manner, or with the intent to disrupt or undermine the legitimate operation of the data.org Challenge; or to be threatening or harassing any other Challenge participant(s) or individuals.
  • data.org also reserves the right to disqualify any participants who violate any other term contained in these Rules and any standards of behavior expressed or implied herein.
  • Entry into the data.org Challenge does not constitute entry into any other challenge or promotion operated or promoted by any Challenge Partners.

You may contact us with any questions or comments about these Rules at petschallenge@data.org. Please enter Rules in the subject line of your email.