The Aqualunar Challenge (the “Challenge”) is run by Challenge Works, part of Nesta (“Nesta”) in partnership with the International Bilateral Fund (“the Fund”) on behalf of the UK Space Agency (”Agency”). Please note that these terms and conditions apply at all stages of the Challenge, from its opening on 17 January 2023 through to when funded projects have concluded and an evaluation of the competition is completed.
The Aqualunar Challenge is a £1.2m UK-Canada challenge prize to drive the creation of innovative technologies for use on the Moon to purify water on the lunar surface. In the UK, it is delivered by Challenge Works, on behalf of the UK Space Agency. In Canada, it is delivered by the Canadian Space Agency in partnership with Impact Canada. These terms & conditions apply to the UK Aqualunar Challenge only.
Teams will be supported through seed grants, intensive business and technical support and publicity. UK teams will share £600,000 of seed grants and final prize money, as well as access to comprehensive non-financial support.
The Aqualunar Challenge is calling for innovators to create innovative technologies for use on the Moon to purify lunar water. These solutions may also contribute to novel water purification technologies here on Earth.
The eligibility criteria for the UK Aqualunar Challenge are as follows:
The funding awarded in this Challenge is subject to UK Subsidy Control rules. Applicants may be required to provide information and, where relevant, complete declarations to ensure compliance with these rules (see government guidance).
Full information about the Challenge and what participating in it will involve is published on the Challenge website (aqualunarchallenge.org.uk). We draw your particular attention to the Applicant Guide which forms part of and should be read alongside these terms and conditions.
In these terms and conditions “you” and “your” means the lead entrant that leads an entry submitted to the Challenge.
Please read these terms and conditions carefully before submitting an entry to the Challenge. By submitting an entry, you accept these terms and conditions on behalf of your organisation and agree to comply with them. By submitting an entry, you also confirm that you have authorisation to accept these terms and conditions on behalf of any partners, and other participants, identified within your entry, and you acknowledge that you are responsible for making sure that those partners and participants comply with these terms and conditions.
1.1 When submitting an entry to the Challenge you must follow the entry process. Entries received by the relevant deadline will be assessed against the Eligibility Criteria as set out on the Challenge website (aqualunarchallenge.org.uk). Entries which do not meet the Eligibility Criteria shall not be accepted. The eligibility assessment will be conducted by Nesta. Nesta reserves the right to refuse any entry that does not, in its assessment, meet the Eligibility Criteria.
1.2. Nesta reserves the right to refuse acceptance of any entry, where the entry is inconsistent with these terms and conditions in Nesta’s view.
1.3. An organisation is not eligible to enter or participate in the Challenge:
1.3.1 if it shares common ownership with Nesta and/or the Agency, except where such a relationship is declared and measures taken to manage any risk of conflict have been approved by the Agency; or
1.3.2 if any individual in its project team or any senior member of its staff is:
(i) an employee of Nesta or an immediate family member of such employee, including any other relationship which may reasonably generate a conflict of interest;
(ii) an employee of the Agency that is working or has worked on the research, design, administration, delivery and/or evaluation of any aspect of the Challenge, or any immediate family member of such employee; or
(iii) any other individual that is working or has worked on the research, design, administration, delivery and/or evaluation of the Challenge, or any immediate family member of such individual, except where such a relationship is declared and measures taken to manage any risk of conflict have been approved by the Agency.
1.4 You must bear all the costs of entering and participating in the Challenge, including travel costs and other out of pocket expenses. Please note for the avoidance of doubt that you are responsible for all costs to enter regardless of the outcome of your entry.
1.5 Challenge Works reserves the right (in its discretion) not to accept late entries or entries submitted in languages other than English. Neither Nesta nor the Agency are responsible for, and Nesta may in its discretion disregard, entries that are lost, incomplete, damaged or late due to computer, network or telecommunications failure based on third party telephone or data networks.
1.6 The contact details you provide will be used to contact you about the Challenge. All communications from you in relation to the Challenge must be in English. If you do not respond within 14 days, or if you withdraw or are disqualified from the Challenge for any reason, another entry may be selected in your place, but there is no requirement or obligation for this to happen.
1.7 In consultation with Nesta, the Agency may vary the form or substance of the Challenge (including deadlines and event dates) as it deems appropriate in the circumstances to ensure the Challenge objectives, as set out within the Entrant Handbook, are achieved.
1.8 Nesta reserves the right to vary these terms and conditions at any time. Variations will take effect from the date they are posted on the Challenge website so please check regularly to see the current version.
1.9 Applications will be assessed on submission against the eligibility requirements to enter and judging criteria set out on the Prize website and will be ratified by the Agency. The participants must continue to meet the eligibility requirements at all stages throughout the Prize. Our decision about eligibility and shortlisting, the judges’ decision on selection of the finalists and the Prize awards (including in each case the validity of any claims and data submitted) is final and is not subject to appeal.
2.1 The payment of any funds awarded through the Challenge shall be settled in accordance with an agreed settlement mechanism. Neither Nesta nor any of their respective partners in the Challenge shall have any responsibility or liability to anyone, however, arising for the non-payment or delay in payment of any funds awarded through the Challenge.
2.2 Funding will be awarded in pounds sterling and the recipient is responsible for payment of tax and other charges.
2.3 If you are selected as a winner of the Challenge, you will be required to enter into a Challenge award agreement before funds will be awarded. Any funds awarded by the Challenge must only be used to fund the project described in your entry. Such usage must comply with the terms of the Challenge award agreement and must promote the objectives of the Challenge as described on the Challenge website. You must comply with all reasonable monitoring requirements specified by the Agency either directly or in conjunction with Nesta, to verify the proper use of such funds, and you consent to the sharing of all monitoring information between Nesta and the Agency and with any third party Nesta may in future appoint in respect of the monitoring of the Challenge. Nesta and the Agency reserves the right to include terms within the Challenge award agreement which may impose additional conditions on the release of funds during the course of the project if either Nesta or the Agency, in their sole opinion, form the view that (i) the Challenge has not resulted or will not result in sufficient public benefit in line with Nesta’s charitable objects or the objectives of the Challenge and/or (ii) if such conditions are required or are appropriate according to the Agency’s discretion in light of other legal or regulatory requirements. 2.4 If you fail to comply with any of the provisions of a Challenge award agreement, Nesta and/or the Agency reserves the right to refuse your entry to future competitions at its own discretion.
3.1 To participate in the Challenge, you must:
-satisfy the relevant eligibility criteria and ensure that all information submitted by you is true, accurate and complete;
-submit a proposal which is your own original idea and not copied from anyone else;
have, or will obtain, all authorisations, consents and permissions, including any relevant legal or regulatory requirements, necessary to submit your entry, carry out your proposal and comply with these terms and conditions;
-ensure that your entry will not infringe any intellectual property or other third party rights or breach any contractual obligation. You may be disqualified if we receive notice that your entry infringes any third party rights;
-act lawfully, ethically and in good faith and comply with these terms and conditions, any Challenge award agreement,, any other rules of the Challenge and any relevant laws, regulations, guidelines and codes of practice;
-comply with all reasonable instructions while participating in the Challenge, including in relation to health & safety and security.
3.2 You must:
-at the time of submitting an entry to the Challenge and at any other point during the Challenge, declare and procure that your partners and participants declare any actual or potential conflict of interest with Nesta, the Agency and/or the Challenge judges, and provide Nesta and the Agency with all information reasonably requested in relation to such conflict;
-take reasonable steps and ensure that your partners and participants take reasonable steps, to manage any such conflict including (without limitation) by implementing such measures as Nesta or the Agency may reasonably require. Where a conflict cannot be avoided and/or where Nesta determines (in its sole discretion) that a conflict cannot be appropriately managed you may be disqualified from participating in the Challenge.
3.3 The Agency, in consultation with Nesta, reserves the right at its sole discretion to disqualify you from the Challenge if you or your partners do not comply with these terms and conditions, if you or your partners behave in a way which is misleading, disruptive, inappropriate or potentially dangerous, if you or your partners fail to participate fully or do anything to damage the reputation of Nesta, the Agency or Nesta’s partners. The Agency, in consultation with Nesta, reserves the right to require repayment of any funding awarded to you and/or your partners through the Challenge if you and/or your partners fail to comply with these terms and conditions and/or the terms of any Challenge award agreement and/or the terms of the Settlement Agreement.
4.1 In these terms and conditions:
“Background IPR” is IPR, which exists prior to the submission of the entry to the Challenge.
“Foreground IPR” is all IPR that is created through a project funded by the Challenge.
“IPR” shall mean any copyright and related rights, patents, rights to inventions, registered designs, database rights, design rights, topography rights, trademarks, service marks, trade names and domain names, trade secrets, rights in unpatented know-how, rights of confidence and any other intellectual or industrial property rights of any nature including all entries (or rights to enter) for, and renewals or extensions of such rights and all similar or equivalent rights or forms of protection which subsist or will subsist now or in the future in any part of the world.
4.2 Each participant shall retain all rights in and to its Background IPR. Where necessary an appropriate form of licence should be granted to all participants in any project, which is the subject of a bid, for the sole purpose of the project, in order to enable it to go ahead.
4.3 With regards to the ownership of Foreground IPR, where a project funded through the Challenge involves more than one participant, then any jointly created IPR should be shared proportionately as agreed by the project participants, however where any IPR is created independently by one of the project participants then it should be owned by the participant who created it, rather than by all the project participants.
5.1 Please see Nesta’s Challenge Privacy Policy (TO BE INSERTED) and the UK Space Agency’s Challenge Privacy Notice for information about how we will use personal information obtained for the purposes of participating in the Challenge.
6.1 The Agency, Nesta and Nesta’s partners may carry out publicity and promotion for the Challenge and publish research and evaluation in relation to the Challenge. You agree, and you confirm that your partners agree, to the use of each of your organisation names and a summary of your proposal in promotion and publications in any media and online and to participate in any other publicity reasonably required by Nesta or the Agency in connection with the Challenge. Before publication, any concerns you have about the confidentiality of your entry will be considered. You should specifically draw any such concerns to the attention of Nesta within the terms of your entry. Nesta may ask you and your partners to support and/or participate in promotional activities related to the Challenge on reasonable notice.
6.2 Any public statements made by you or your partners in relation to the Challenge must acknowledge the support of the Agency, Nesta and their partners and must be approved in advance by Nesta, in consultation with the Agency.
6.3 In this clause “FOIA” means the Freedom of Information Act 2000 together with any guidance and/or codes of practice issued by the Information Commissioner or relevant Crown body in relation to such legislation; and “EIR” means the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. You and your partners acknowledge that the Agency is subject to the requirements of the FOIA and the EIR and may be required under the FOIA and the EIR to disclose information concerning you, your partners, your project and participation in the Challenge (including commercially sensitive information) without consulting or obtaining your (and/or your partners) prior consent. In these circumstances the Agency shall, in accordance with any relevant guidance issued under the FOIA, take reasonable steps, where appropriate, to give you and/ or your partners’ advance notice, or failing that, to draw the disclosure to you and/or your partners’ attention after any such disclosure. The Agency shall be responsible for determining in its absolute discretion whether any information is exempt from disclosure in accordance with the FOIA and/or the EIR.
7.1 To the extent permitted by applicable law, Nesta and the Agency exclude all liability for any direct or indirect loss or liability, costs, claims, taxes, charges or expenses arising from your participation in the Challenge or your reliance on statements made or advice given by the Agency, Nesta or Nesta’s partners. If you submit any materials or items as part of your entry to the Challenge, this is at your own risk. Neither Nesta nor the Agency give any undertakings to keep safely, maintain or return any materials or items.
7.2 Without prejudice to Clause 7.1, each of Nesta and the Agency maximum liability to you in connection with the Challenge (if any) is limited to £500. Nothing in these terms and conditions excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or fraudulent misrepresentation.
8.1 These terms and conditions shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with the laws of England and Wales and you hereby submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.
