Smallprint

Terms and conditions

Please read these terms and conditions carefully. By entering to win The Spinoff Prize (the “Award”), you agree that you have read and agree to these terms (the “Terms”). Failure to comply with the Terms may result in disqualification from participation in the Award. The Terms include all instructions on how to participate or take part in the Award.

1. Parties and Purpose

(a) The Award is run by Springer Nature Limited a company incorporated in England & Wales, registered number 00785998, whose registered office is at The Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London N1 9XW in collaboration with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany a company incorporated in Darmstadt, Germany whose registered office is at Frankfurter Str. 250, 64293 Darmstadt, Germany and its Dutch subsidiary company, M Ventures (together, the “Promoter”).

(b) The Award is designed to recognise excellence amongst companies which have been set up to commercially exploit the results of research activity by a university or research institute (each company, a “Spinoff”).

2. Eligibility

To be eligible to enter the Spinoff must:

(a) The Spinoff must have been formed to commercially exploit the results of research activity. The organisation from which the underpinning research originated must be a university or a research institute.

(b) The Spinoff has to be a separate legal entity and not an extension or controlled body of the university or research institute, although they may still own a controlling equity stake.

(d) The Spinoff can be based in any country other than those excluded in Clause 3.a of these Terms.

(e) The Spinoff must be operating in research in life sciences, or physical sciences, both of which can include digital technology approaches i.e. including artificial intelligence, deep learning, neuromorphic computing and quantum computing.

To be eligible to enter, the applicant must at the point of application fulfill the following criteria.

(f) Each application must have supporting approval from the university or research institute where the underpinning research was conducted.

(g) The applicant should be an employee of the Spinoff.

(h) The applicant will need approval to apply from a relevant authorised individual within the approving institution’s technology transfer office or equivalent. The authorised individual cannot be employed by the Spinoff.

(i) The applicant can be of any nationality and based in any country other than those excluded in Clause 3.a of these Terms.

(j) The Promoter reserves the right to verify the eligibility of applicants.

(k) 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 one calendar year.

(l) Companies which entered previous cycles of the Spinoff Prize may submit an entry for this cycle, provided that all eligibility criteria are met AND the company has not previously been included in the final slam.

(m) A number of applications, called the shortlist, will be profiled on Springer Nature Ltd’s website in a free-to-access special report. The applicant must be prepared to be interviewed, and their image published.

(n) The applicant must be available to attend the final slam event at the Curious2024 – Future Insight™ conference on the 10th and 11th of July 2024, as a select number of shortlisted applicants will be invited to participate in the slam competition (see Clause 6 for more detail).

(o) If the applicant is shortlisted but is no longer able to attend the final slam event, another representative of the Spinoff may attend instead. The substitute attendee can either be an employee of the Spinoff, a member of the board of directors, a member of an advisory board, or a member of the university or research institute’s technology transfer office or equivalent.

To be eligible to enter, the approving institution must:

(p) The application must be approved by the university or research institute where the underpinning research was conducted.

(q) Approvals must be given by a senior member of the technology transfer office or equivalent department, or if no such office exists, a senior office holder from the institution. The approving person cannot be employed by the Spinoff.

(r) An approval requires an email confirmation sent by the approving institution to the Spinoff. The facility to do this is incorporated into the application submission system. Institutions do not have to contact the Promoter directly.

3. Exclusions

(a) The Award is not open to:

(i) persons or Spinoffs 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 Spinoff Prize or

(ii) persons or Spinoffs (including companies) 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;

(iii) any individual named on Specially Designated Nationals lists as updated from time to time;

(iv) directors or employees (or members of their immediate families) of the Promoter or any holding company or subsidiary of Promoter; or

(v) any members of the current judging panel (or members of their immediate families).

(vi) any organisations in the final slam from previous cycles.

(vii) Individuals. The Spinoff Prize is awarded to companies which have been set up to commercially exploit the results of research activity by a university or research institutions or learned societies.

(viii) Research, funding or healthcare organisations, which is any entity (i) that is a healthcare or medical association or organisation (irrespective of the legal or organisational form) such as a hospital, clinic, foundation, university or other teaching institution or learned society or (ii) through which one or more Healthcare Professionals provide services. 'Healthcare’ and ‘medical’ are here defined as directly providing health-related services to patients through the entity.

4. Application Process

(a) Entries should be submitted between 11th September 2023 and 7th January 2024 (11:59 pm UTC 00:00), via the following portal: https://natureawards.submittable.com/submit

(b) Late applications may be accepted at the discretion of the Promoter.

5. Criteria for application and evaluation

(a) Applications will be assessed against the following criteria:

(i) The science (50). Clear demonstration of the originality and quality of the underpinning science.

(ii) The opportunity (50). A precisely defined market problem or unmet need, as well as demonstration of the suitability and viability of the solution in the context of the competitive landscape.

(iii) The plan & team (50). A demonstrably high-quality business plan, appropriately validated, and a management team with the necessary skills and experience.

(iv) The impact (50). An assessment of the significance of the problem or unmet need in terms of health burden or cost to society.

(b) The applicant will have to answer questions that relate to each of the above criteria and the numbers in brackets will be the maximum marks available for each section.

(c) Applications must be complete, written in English and submitted online with all relevant supporting materials. Incomplete applications may be declared ineligible and applicants may not be given the opportunity to re-submit or alter their application.

(d) Applicants will also need to provide personal/organisation details and a shortlist profile.

6. Judging Process

The judging process will take place in a number of stages:

(a) The first stage is an eligibility check, verifying all the aspects of an applicant’s eligibility against documentation. In return for the application and the information contained therein, all eligible applicants will be offered a free online ticket to the Curious2024 – Future Insight™ conference.

(b) The second stage involves a review of the science on which the spinoff was founded. This is conducted by a team of experienced post-doctoral researchers who will prioritise innovative and breakthrough science.

(c) In the third stage, a multidisciplinary panel will score all applications on the strength of their science, the significance of the need which the spinoff addresses and the calibre of the business plan developed to bring the former to bear on the latter. On the basis of this process, the longlist and shortlist will be decided.

(d) In the fourth stage, shortlisted candidates will pitch to a multidisciplinary panel at a slam session in July 2024. A Slam session refers to a live or virtual competition format, where participants pitch their Spinoff to a panel of judges and answer the judges’ questions. Timings and format will be provided in advance.

(e) The winners will be selected by the multidisciplinary panel at the slam session in July 2024 following the pitches.

(f) The multidisciplinary panel will consist of a Chief Judge and of individuals including senior editorial staff from Nature Portfolio and external experts working in the fields of technology transfer and venture capital. Full names of the judging panel can be viewed in the 'Judges' section of this website. The judging panel will make up 100% of the votes.

(g) By entering The Award, companies are agreeing to make available a representative for the slam round of judging. The slam panel will consist of judges from a commercial background and a representative of Nature.

(h) In the event of a tie at any stage, the chair will make the final decision. Any decision will be final and binding and no further communication will be entered into in relation to it.

(i) 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.

(j) The shortlisted applicants will be notified by April 2024 and announced in June 2024. The final number of shortlisted applicants is decided at the discretion of the Promoter. The Promoter reserves the right to reduce the number of shortlisted applicants in the event that there are insufficient entries or that the entries are not suitable or of an unsatisfactory standard.

(k) The winner will be selected and announced at the final slam event in July 2024. The winner will be required to confirm acceptance of The Spinoff Prize within 14 calendar days and may be required to complete and return an eligibility form. If the winner does not accept The Spinoff Prize within 14 days of being notified, they will forfeit The Spinoff Prize 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.

7. Expenses

(a) In relation to shortlisted applicants’ representative for the second ‘slam’ round at the Conference, Springer Nature Ltd in its capacity as a Promoter will pay the cost of reasonable transport from the representative’s nearest international airport to Mainz.

(b) Local transfers to the nearest international airport are not included unless the representative is from a Springer Nature ResearchforLife country.

(c) Springer Nature Ltd in its capacity as a Promoter will also pay for 3 nights of accommodation at a suitable 3* hotel, breakfast included. If the applicant company and their representative are from a Springer Nature ResearchforLife country, a per diem of £50 per day will also be paid.

(d) The maximum travel reimbursement for the expenses under this Clause 7 will be €1250 (one thousand two hundred and fifty Euros).

(e) Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany in its capacity as a Promoter will provide a free ticket to the Conference for the representative of each shortlisted Spinoff.

8. Prize

(a) The prize (“Prize”) consists of the following:

(i) a cash sum of €30,000 (thirty thousand Euros); and

(ii) a company profile in the Spinoff Prize supplement

(b) The winner of the Prize will be announced as part of the final slam event, when the representative of the winning company will be expected to accept the Prize.

(c) The winning applicant will be required to formalise acceptance of the Award and the Prize by signing the winner agreement within 14 calendar days and may be required to complete and return an eligibility form.

(d) If a winner does not accept the Award within 14 days of being notified, they will forfeit the Award and the Prize and the Promoter reserves the right to choose another winner.

(e) The judges’ decision is final and the Promoter reserves the right not to correspond on any matter.

(f) The Prize is non-transferable.

(g) Promoter reserves the right to cancel or amend these Terms and Conditions or change the Prize (to one of equal or greater value) as required by the circumstances.

(h) No cash equivalent to the Prize (or any part thereof) is available, including expenses.

(i) The winner will be required to provide their company’s bank details, and the prize will be paid into this account on a date as advised by the Promoter. The winner is solely responsible for any tax that may be liable on the award. Prize funds must be paid into the Spinoff company bank account and cannot be paid to a personal bank account.

(j) Prize money must be invested by the company in research and development.

9. Privacy and Publicity

(a) All personal data regarding entrants or applicants is subject to, and will be treated in a manner consistent with, the Promoter’s Privacy Policy accessible at nature.com/info/privacy.html.

(b) By participating in The Award, each applicant’s personal data will be used as part of, and to communicate with them about, the Springer Nature Awards programme. You can remove your details by emailing awards@nature.com.

(c) 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 2025, or for a further period of 2 years for the winner, runners up, longlisted and shortlisted candidates, and acknowledge that they have read and accepted the Promoter Privacy Policy www.nature.com/info/privacy.html.

(d) By participating in The Award, the full application data including personal information of the applicant will be shared with M Ventures, a Dutch subsidiary company of Merck KGaA, for its scouting activities.

(e) All shortlisted applicants must answer profile questions and provide a headshot photograph to the Promoter as part of their application. The name, region of residence and profiles of longlisted (and shortlisted and winning) applicants will be published on the Spinoff Prize List website. Images and other content provided by the applicant may be used by the Promoter for reasonable publicity in any form including on the Promoters’ websites and social media pages at no cost.

(f) Each applicant undertakes to keep the status and the listing of the applicant for the Award completely confidential until after the public announcement by the Promoter of each stage of the longlist, shortlist and award.

(g) The application form used for The Award 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: submittable.com/privacy/

(h) The longlisted and shortlisted applicants, and the winner agree to participate in webcasts, interviews and contribute content as the Promoter reasonably requires and directs.

10. Miscellaneous

(a) No purchase is necessary to apply for the Awards, and will not impact an applicant’s chances of winning.

(b) 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 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.

(c) 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 Award or otherwise in a manner not in keeping with Springer Nature Group’s standards around ethics and research integrity.

(d) The Promoter may, in its sole discretion, withdraw the Awards and/or Prize from any winner or shortlisted applicant, in the event that the winner or shortlisted applicant behaves in such a way as to bring the name or reputation of the Promoter or the Awards into disrepute.

(e) The Promoter may, in its sole discretion, publically withdraw the Award from any shortlist, winner or runner up in the event that of an error in the applicant’s application form, a problem with the research programme to which the application relates, or the applicant is found to have acted in a manner inconsistent with Springer Nature Group’s standards around ethics and research integrity.

(f) 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 Award or any aspect of the Prize. All activities are undertaken at the applicant’s own risk.

(g) 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 sole discretion.

(h) 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 non- exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

Last updated: January 2024