Terms and Conditions

Parties
Eligibility
Exclusions
Judges and Winners
Prize
Confidential information
Intellectual property
Privacy and Publicity
Miscellaneous

Last updated: 15 April 2024

Please read these terms and conditions carefully. By entering into the Nature Awards Microbiome Accelerator (the “Awards”) you agree that you have read and agree to these terms and conditions (the “Terms”). The Terms include the prize details and all instructions on how to participate or take part in the Awards. Failure to comply with the Terms may result in disqualification from participation in the Awards.

1. Parties

The Awards are run by Springer Nature Limited, a company registered in England and Wales, registered number 00785998 and registered office at The Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London N1 9XW, under their brand name Nature Awards, in collaboration with Seed Health., a company incorporated in Los Angeles, California, USA (together, the “Promoter”).

2. Eligibility

To be eligible to enter the Awards, the applicant must at the point of application:

be employed by a university, non-profit or government-funded research institute. Research group leaders employed by private and publicly listed companies are not eligible to apply. This includes spinoff/spinout companies.
have a contract of employment, with their current or future employer, that does not terminate before the 31st December 2025.
hold a research group leader/principal investigator position. Postdoctoral researchers and PhD students are not eligible to apply.
be working in any academic discipline but have conducted research that has potential commercial applications in the field of microbiome interventions that enhance human health outcomes.
have a desire to explore and pursue the commercial applications of your research.
must be available to attend the residential training programme from the 11th – 15th November 2024 in London. If at any point from the submission of an application, the applicant is unable to attend, they must contact awards@nature.com. Springer Nature reserves the right to withdraw their application, or if a winner, rescind the award and offer to another applicant.
be resident in a country where it is lawful for you to apply, nor be subject to any other exclusions listed in these Terms.
The Promoter reserves the right to verify the eligibility of applicants.
There is no restriction on the number of awards that an applicant can apply for, but an applicant cannot be selected to more than one award shortlist by the Promoter in the same calendar year.
Applicants that have entered previous cycles of the Microbiome Accelerator may submit an entry for the cycle, provided that all eligibility criteria are met AND the applicant has not been included in the residential training programme.

3. Exclusions

Please note that the Awards are not open at any stage to:
1. persons resident in countries or territories where local, state, provincial or national laws prohibit the promotion of, operation of or participation in such awards or receiving prizes pursuant to the Award
2. persons resident in Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Burma/Myanmar, Russia, or the Crimea, Donetsk or Luhansk regions of Ukraine, or other sanction-sensitive countries or regions as updated from time to time;
3. any individual named on Specially Designated Nationals lists as updated from time to time;
4. directors or employees (or members of their immediate families) of the Promoter or any affiliate of the Promoter;
5. any current members of the judging panel or ambassadors (or members of their immediate families);
6. previous winners.
7. The following are excluded from the scope; diagnostics and medical devices.
8. researchers who are at the early stages of basic research and have yet to build an experimental foundation from which to start exploring the translational path
Applications received after the deadline will not be accepted.
Complete applications must be in English and include all sections requested by the Promoter.
Incomplete applications may be declared ineligible, and applicants may not be given the opportunity to re-submit or alter their application.

4. Judges and Winners

Judges will select a shortlist of applicants, and subsequently winners based on the applicants’ ability to meet the evaluation criteria as set out in the application form. Sub-criteria for judging are to be defined by the judging panel as required during the shortlisting stage.
The received entries will go through several stages of reviews, after which the top 4 candidates will be selected to award the prize money to and invite to the residential training programme. All applications will be checked for eligibility and completeness. Eligible applications will be put forward to the next stage where the science section will be reviewed. The top applications enter the second round of scoring. After that, the Judging Panel Chair and the Programme Manager identify the applications that will be discussed at the panel meeting, where the panel selects a shortlist. Before we announce the shortlist, we carry out a research integrity check on each of the shortlisted candidates. Finally, the panel will decide on the winners by interviewing the shortlisted candidates.
By entering The Award, applicants are agreeing to make themselves available for the interview round of judging.
The winners will be notified on or before September 2024 and announced before December 2024. The winners will be required to confirm acceptance of the Awards and the Prize within 14 calendar days and may be required to complete and return an eligibility form. If the winners do not accept the Awards within 14 days of being notified, they will forfeit the Awards and the Prize and the Promoter reserves the right to choose another winner. The judges’ decision is final and the Promoter reserves the right not to correspond on any matter.
The judging panel will make up 100% of the votes. The judging panel will choose the winners from the shortlisted applicants. The judging panel will consist of a Chief Judge and individuals including staff from Springer Nature, independent judges, and judges from Seed Health. Full names of the judging panel are available at the following URL:. In the event of a tie, the Chief Judge will make the final decision. Any decision will be final and binding and no further communication will be entered into in relation to it.
Nature Awards actively encourages submissions from countries in the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Country Classification System. Note that a number of weighting points will be added to such submissions, based on the country of origin’s position in the classification. Fundamental excellence and achievement remain the overriding consideration of the judges but the weighting points will be used to ensure that these are viewed in the context of the entrant’s access to opportunity and resources.

5. Prize

The prizes (“Prize”) for the Awards consist of the following:

Four winning prizes consisting of:
1. the sum of US$10,000 to support the commercialisation of your research;
2. coverage within nature.com (the format and amount to be determined in the sole discretion of Springer Nature);
3. an invitation to attend the residential training programme from the 11th-15th November 2024 in London, including:
  1. reasonable transport from the winner’s nearest international airport to the Award residential training programme (for example, an economy class international flight);
  2. six nights’ accommodation at a suitable three star local hotel, breakfast included;
  3. two airport transfers to the hotel; and
  4. reasonable expenses in the form of a £50 per diem.
  5. Note that in the event that it is not possible or not advisable to hold the residential training programme in person, an alternative means of delivering the programme will be decided, at the discretion of the Promoter.
4. A minimum of 8 shortlist prizes, consisting of a place at an online Translation and Commercialisation Feedback Forum;
5. All eligible entrants will be invited to join an online Introduction to Research Translation and Commercialisation webinar.
For the invitations to the residential training programme outlined in clause 5.1, the following statements apply:
1. carrier’s terms of carriage apply;
2. winners are solely responsible for obtaining their own visas, vaccines, and travel insurance;
3. if the Award winner cannot attend either or both events for any reason then there is no cash equivalent for the flights, hotel, per diem, and transfers;
4. if the winner cannot attend the residential training programme for any reason, a team member of equal seniority should attend in their place, they must have had significant involvement in the project and also have an aspiration to be closely involved in the commercialization process.
5. local transfers to the nearest international airport are not included unless the winner is from a Springer Nature Research4Life country.
The applicant must attend all of the residential pre-accelerator programme sessions in order for the $10,000 to be paid, unless there are reasonable extenuating circumstances such as illness or travel disruption. It is at the sole discretion of Springer Nature to decide.
The winner must confirm that the $10,000 prize will be used to support the commercialisation of the project, in accordance with the spirit of the Awards. Failure to do so could result in the prize being revoked and the proceeds (or any remaining amount) in turn being allocated to another applicant, or to one or more of the other winners.
The prize cannot be used to pay patent prosecution costs. However, the applicant & Technology Transfer Office (or equivalent) can make a request and supporting statement to Springer Nature to utilise for patents costs.
The Awards and the Prize are non-transferable and non-negotiable.
The winning applicant will be required to formally accept the Award and the Prize via email within 14 calendar days, and may be required to provide confirmation of eligibility. If a winner does not accept the Award and the Prize within 14 calendar days of being notified, they may forfeit the Award and the Prize and the Promoter reserves the right to choose another winner.
The judges’ decision is final and the Promoter reserves the right not to correspond on any matter.
Any government officials who enter the Promotion are responsible for ensuring that they may enter and that their employer can receive the prize if they win, and that the prize does not exceed the relevant limit for their role and jurisdiction. If a winners employer is not able to accept the prize, then in the absolute discretion of the Promoter, the $10,000 will be allocated to another applicant or to one or more of the other winners.
The $10,000 cash prize will be paid to the applicant’s employer, even in the case that the applicant personally owns the IP rights.
The winner’s employer will be required to provide their bank details, and the prize will be paid into the nominated account. The winner’s employer is fully responsible for any tax that may be liable on the award.
A short report will be requested from the winners one year after receipt of the $10,000, detailing how it was utilised to support commercialisation.

6. Confidential information

All parties handling any confidential information will be made aware of the following obligations.
1. applicants are required to state in the application form whether they are disclosing confidential information.
2. any non-Springer Nature employee will be required to agree to keep any confidential information disclosed in an application, or during the programme confidential, until it has been put into the public domain by academic paper, patent publication, conference presentation etc.
3. given that the selected winners may be exposed to each other’s confidential information during the residential training programme, such as through the exercises and discussions, the award letter will contain terms related to the handling of confidential information.

7. Intellectual property

Although there is no obligation to enter into a commercial relationship with Seed Health, such as a collaboration or licencing of intellectual property, it is expected that the applicant, the research team and their employer are open to such an outcome and are applying to the scheme in good faith. In order to facilitate such an outcome it is required that:
1. there is no current or planned commercial collaboration/partnership with a company in relation to the research detailed in the application and its commercialization in the field of the microbiome and human health. Commercial collaborations in other non-competitive fields are permitted i.e. animal health.
2. any intellectual property and intellectual property rights therein, should be available to be exclusively licenced to a third party in the field of human microbiome and human health, or to be licensed or assigned to a spinoff/spinout company.
3. Any enabling know-how and research tools such as models, assays, libraries etc should be available to be non-exclusively licensed in order to support the commercialisation of the intellectual property.
4. The applicant, research team and the Technology Transfer Office or equivalent, must declare if they are aware of any potential freedom to operate issues and identify them in the application, but are not expected to conduct a freedom to operate search.
5. Seed Health may engage with any of the winners to explore mutual interests in forming a collaboration. If both parties wish to do so, this should be on terms to be agreed between Seed Health and the representatives of the employer of the applicant i.e. Technology Transfer Office.
6. it is anticipated that during the residential training programme the selected winners will engage in detailed discussions with experts in order to investigate the commercial potential. Any intellectual property created during this process that is directly related to the intellectual property detailed in the application, will be the property of the intellectual property owner i.e. the applicant's employer, in order to avoid any fragmentation of intellectual property ownership.
7. The applicants must make their Technology Transfer Office or equivalent, aware of their application, the confidentiality and intellectual property terms and conditions above and provide a contact name from the TTO in the application.

8. Privacy and Publicity

All personal data regarding applicants is subject to and will be treated in a manner consistent with Springer Nature’s Privacy Policy, accessible at www.nature.com/info/privacy.html.
By participating in the Awards, your personal data will be used as part of, and to communicate with you about, the Springer Nature Awards programme. You can remove your details by emailing awards@nature.com.
Applicants agree that the Promoter may collect and use their personal information, which shall be shared with the judging panel which includes members outside of the Promoter’s staff, and stored until 31st December 2026, or for a further period of 2 years for the winner and shortlisted applicants.
By participating in the Awards, applicants acknowledge that they have read and accepted the Promoter’s Privacy Policy which shall be deemed to be applicable to the Awards application.
The application form used for the Awards is hosted by Submittable. By participating in the Award, applicants give their consent to, such use, processing, and transfer as required by all applicable data- protection laws and have sole responsibility for the accuracy, quality, and legality of personal data processed by Submittable in the provision of the services they provide to the Promoter for the application process. The Submittable Privacy Policy is available at: www.submittable.com/privacy.
The winners must participate in webcasts, interviews, and contribute content after the award results have been announced, at the reasonable request of the Promoter.
All winners provide a headshot photograph and profile questions to the Promoter. The profile and questions will be used by the Promoter on the Award’s website. The name, region of residence, profile, and likeness of the winners may be used by the Promoter for Award and event publicity in any form including on the Promoter’s website and social media pages, and those of the Sponsor, at no cost to the Promoter or Sponsor.
The winner agrees to keep the results of the Award completely confidential until after the public announcement of the winner by the Promoter.

9. Miscellaneous

No purchase is necessary to apply for the Awards and would not increase your chances of winning.
The Promoter accepts no responsibility for any entries that are incomplete, illegible, corrupted or fail to reach the Promoter by the closing date for any reason. Proof of posting or sending is not proof of receipt. Entries made via agents or third parties are invalid. No other form of entry is permitted. Please keep a copy of your entry as we will be unable to return entries or provide copies.
The Promoter may, in its sole discretion, disqualify any applicant or winner found to be tampering or interfering with the entry process or operation of the Awards website, or to be acting in any manner deemed to be disruptive of, or prejudicial to, the operation or administration of the Awards or otherwise in a manner not in keeping with the Promotor’s standards around ethics and research integrity.
The Promoter reserves the right to withdraw the Awards and/or Prize from any winner or shortlisted applicant in the event that the Promoter reasonably suspects: any error in the applicant’s application form; any problem with the research programme to which the application relates; or that the applicant has acted in a manner inconsistent with the Promoter’s standards around ethics and research integrity.
The Promoter may, in its sole discretion, withdraw the Awards and/or Prize from any winner in the event that the winner behaves in such a way as to bring the name or reputation of the Promoter or the Awards into disrepute.
Other than for death or personal injury arising from negligence of the Promoter, so far as is permitted by law, the Promoter hereby excludes all liability for any loss, damage, cost, and expense, whether direct or indirect, howsoever caused in connection with the Awards or any aspect of the Prize. All activities are undertaken at the applicant’s own risk.
The Promoter reserves the right to cancel or amend these Terms and Conditions or change the Prize (to one of equal or greater value) in its discretion. No cash equivalent to the Prize is available.
These Terms and Conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law. Disputes arising in connection with this Agreement shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.