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Green Alternatives for European Autonomy (hereinafter “GAEA” or the “Project”) Challenge is a comprehensive Open Innovation Program designed for innovators and idea holders eager to develop or refine an innovative concept into a startup. With our entrepreneurial supportive environment, the focus is on nurturing ideas addressing the challenges of European Energy Autonomy, especially across eight countries. The program consists of eight (8) respective regional innovation competitions, by which the best teams will proceed to the interregional competition that will identify the teams that will be supported to establish a startup and commercialize their innovative idea.

GAEA is designed by the Consortium Partnership Members who have received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No 101100458.

1. THE PROCEDURE

Participants develop and present their innovative ideas with the support of experienced mentors from the startup ecosystem, academics, and industry experts. Participants can take part in the Program either individually or in teams of up to five people. Interdisciplinarity is encouraged through the formation of teams with members of different/complementary expertise. Individuals/Teams wishing to participate in the Regional Innovation Competition should submit their applications through the Mantis IMS platform (https://gaea.mantisims.gr/) and are requested to pitch their ideas in front of a panel of judges that will evaluate and select the most promising ideas to proceed.

Applications to be submitted must relate to one of the following Innovation Areas:

1. Exploration: Exploration and raw materials resource assessment
2. Mining: Mining in challenging environments
3. Energy Efficiency
4. Energy Storage
5. Renewable Energy
6. Environment & Sustainability
7. Green Transition
8. Recycling: Recycling and material chain optimization for End-of-Life products
9. Smart & Sustainable cities
10. Circular economy: Design of products and services for the circular economy
11. Mineral and metallurgical processes: Increased resource efficiency in mineral and metallurgical processes
12. Substitution of critical and toxic materials in products and for optimized performance

2. SUBMITTING APPLICATIONS

The submission of the applications can be made from March 11, 2024, to July 19th, 2024, based on each country’s regional innovation competition schedule as shown at the official Project website: https://gaeachallenge.eu/. Applications should be submitted exclusively electronically via the Project’s innovation management software via the URL: https://gaea.mantisims.gr/ (in accordance with the relevant instructions that have been posted and may be updated). Interested parties are invited to fill in their personal information and/or the information of the other members of their team in the relevant field (stating who the contact person is from the team). The submission of innovative ideas and/or business plans should be created in accordance with the submission template of the call for proposals, as it has been uploaded to the innovation management software.

All participating teams will be informed of the results of their evaluation regarding whether they have qualified or not for the Interregional Innovation Competition.

3. PROGRAM

The Program will run in its entirety from March 11, 2024, to September 30, 2025. Interested parties may register for the pre-acceleration program (https://gaeachallenge.eu/pre-acceleration-program/) from March 11, 2024, to April 17, 2024, where they will be informed about the mentor who will be assigned to support them until the day of their participation in their respective country’s Regional Innovation Competition, with the aim of preparing and finally submitting their participation in the Regional Innovation Competition process via the innovation management software (https://gaea.mantisims.gr/).

Regional Innovation Competition will be held either virtually or on-site based on each country’s process that will be announced via email accordingly to participants. The first 3 teams in each Regional Innovation Competition will be automatically selected to progress to the Interregional Innovation Competition.

4. EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS

The evaluation of the proposals is carried out by an interdisciplinary committee, taking into account objective criteria available on the Project website, based on the presentation of their idea (Pitch Deck).

5. RIGHT AND CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION

Each participant must carefully read the terms and conditions hereof before registering and submitting the proposal:

1. Participation in the Program implies the unconditional acceptance of all independent terms of the competition and the relevant commitment of the participants.
2. Participation in the Program is carried out by electronic submission of ideas/business plans on the specially designed innovation management software: https://gaea.mantisims.gr/
3. Proposals must be submitted in English.
4. The submitted project must be based on an innovative idea that solves essential needs – challenges and constitutes an opportunity for a satisfactory national or international market.
5. Any natural person over eighteen (18) years of age may participate in the Program.
6. Participants bear full and exclusive responsibility for the registration or any other protection of their submitted ideas/business plans, as well as the rights arising therefrom. For their part, the Organizers hereby declare that they have duties of confidentiality towards the participants for the information and submission of the proposal documents arising to them.
7. Interested parties can participate in the Program individually (not recommended) or as a group. In the case of group participation, the representative of the group must be declared, who will also be the contact person, as well as the remaining members, up to a total of five (5). The representative of the group guarantees that he has received the prior written authorization of the remaining members to submit their personal information, for the needs of the Program, and that they will be made available to him at any time upon request.
8. The Organizers may request the relevant documents (identity card, passport, residence permit, etc.) to cross-check or certify the participants’ details in accordance with the above terms.
9. In case of false declarations, the Organizers bear no responsibility and reserve the right to cancel participation in any phase of the Program.
10. Each natural person or group of natural persons participates in a single Innovation Area with a single idea/business plan (hereinafter “proposal”).
11. Proposals containing illegal or immoral material are excluded from the Program.
12. The following cannot participate in the Program: members of the Organizers, members of the Program’s committee of judges/evaluators, as well as spouses and relatives up to the 1st degree of the aforementioned.
13. Any printed material and/or other material, part of the proposal submitted within the framework of the Program, will constitute the intellectual property of the participant(s) and will not be returned in any case.
14. Any costs of preparing proposals submitted to the Program are borne exclusively by the participants.

6. STATEMENTS – WARRANTIES – LIABILITY OF PARTICIPANTS IN THE COMPETITION

Each participant must carefully read the terms and conditions hereof before registering and submitting the proposal.

1. Each participant bears exclusive and full responsibility towards the Organizers and all third parties for the proposal they submit and for the accuracy of the information they declare.
2. Each participant declares and guarantees that the proposal submitted has been produced by him/her and belongs exclusively to him/her and that he/she retains all rights of use, disposal and exploitation. Each participant also guarantees that the proposal does not infringe intellectual property rights or other rights of any natural or legal person in Greece or abroad, otherwise he/she is entitled and/or has legally acquired all rights, including but not limited to intellectual property rights of third parties and all legal licenses associated with or used for the production of the proposal submitted to the Program. The participant is bound by all of the above from and with his/her participation.
3. Each participant acknowledges that he is obliged to undertake and undertakes to accept any claim made against the Organizers and to exempt the Organizers and their employees and representatives and the members of the Committees from any liability for compensation and expenses, and any expenses or claims of third parties arising from violations of the terms of the Program or third party rights, such as, but not limited to, intellectual property rights. In the event that the Organizers are obliged to pay any amount for these reasons (violation of the terms of the Program or third party rights), this amount will be paid by the participant, who due to his responsibility caused the damage to the organizers.
4. Any announcement regarding the Program is posted exclusively on the Program website, is valid from the date of its posting on said website and in case of conflict, it prevails over any other information provided to the Partners and participants (e.g. via email, etc.) and may be reproduced in other printed or electronic media for the purpose of proper promotion and dissemination of the Program.
5. The Organizers have the right , without prior notice , to modify the terms of the Program or to suspend the process at any stage or to cancel the Program, making subsequent relevant announcements on the Program website https://gaeachallenge.eu/ and without liability for compensation to the participants in the Program or any third party .
6. The Organizers will not disclose the contact details of the evaluators, the evaluation scores and rankings of the proposals submitted throughout the duration of the Program and after its completion. The only mention that will be made concerns the nominal mention of the evaluators and their title for the purposes of promoting the Program (e.g. in publications on social media).
7. The Project’s Partners themselves will not have the right to participate in the Program. Partners are given the right to participate in the respective Evaluation Committees of each Competition.
8. Participation in the Program implies unconditional acceptance and compliance with these terms.
9. The Organizers reserve the right to unilaterally modify these Terms at their absolutely free and uncontrollable discretion, to extend, reduce the duration or cancel the Program as well as to revoke or change the prizes with others similar or equivalent to them, for any reason and at any time, by relevant publication-submission on the internet, on the website https://gaeachallenge.eu/.

7. PERSONAL DATA – INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

1. By accepting the terms of the Program, participants consent to the sharing of their personal information with the Project partners, as presented on its website, at https://gaeachallenge.eu/communities/partners/.
2. Participation in the Program constitutes explicit acceptance and consent to the storage and processing of participants’ data by the Organizers. All participants, as subjects of personal data processing, have the right to access, object, modify and delete their data stored in accordance with the specific provisions of the Greek Law 2472/1997. In any case, personal data will be stored in accordance with Law 2472/1997. For any exercise by participants of their rights arising mainly from articles 12 and 13 of Law 2472/1997 (rights of access and objection to the processing of personal data respectively), the latter may send an email to support@mantisbi.io.
3. All participants of the Program consent to the Organizers displaying their name and image in the Mass Media, including the Internet, regarding the said competition and its procedures, provided that in this way either the Project itself, or the Organizers are promoted.
4. Participants who will be selected for the Program declare that they expressly and irrevocably authorize Organizers to use, edit and reproduce – related to the Program – photographs, statements and posts on social media of part or all of the motivation video they sent for their selection (if requested), for advertising or commercial purposes.

8. APPLICABLE LAW – DISPUTE RESOLUTION

The Program and its terms are governed, interpreted and supplemented by Greek Law. Disputes between Contestants and Program participants will be resolved by the competent courts of Athens, after the parties have made an effort to amicably resolve the decision based on good faith, trading habits and applicable practices.

9. CONFIDENTIALITY

All ideas will be treated with absolute confidentiality at all stages of the competition process and the only thing that will be published will be the name of the product or service that will be awarded, along with a brief description that the team will have to submit with its deliverables for publicity purposes.

The members of the Evaluation Committee and the Mentors collaborate with the Organizers to accept the terms of the Higher Institution’s code of ethics from the beginning of their collaboration with it.

Candidates who wish to legally protect the idea / product / service / business proposal they submit to the Program can contact the competent services (such as the Industrial Property Organization, the Intellectual Property Organization).

Note: Detailed deadline dates, as well as a more extensive description of the entire competition, are posted at https://gaeachallenge.eu/.