THE EARTH PRIZE
TERMS AND CONDITIONS

2.1 For Participants
2.2 For Supervisors

5.1. Payment of Prizes

8.1 Media Rights and Data Access

1. Eligibility

For eligibility rules and definitions, please read The Earth Prize Rules.

2. Participation in The Earth Prize

3. Submissions

• To participate in The Earth Prize, Participants must register on The Earth Prize online platform at www.theearthprize.com. They are strongly encouraged to have a Supervisor. They are encouraged to have a Supervisor, but if they opt out, they must assign a Team Lead. The Supervisor or Team Lead will create a team on the Submissions portal.
• Participants who choose to opt out of having a Supervisor are not eligible for one-on-one mentoring from The Earth Prize Mentors. However, if they advance to the Regional Winners Phase, they will receive mentoring, and a member of The Earth Prize team will participate in the session.
• All Participant submissions MUST be made online through The Earth Prize Submissions Portal. Mail-in submissions will not be accepted.
• Submissions must be received by the deadlines stipulated on The Earth Prize Participant Submission Guidelines.
• Submissions must be received in English only.
• Submissions may only be received in the name of a team.
• False or deceptive submissions or acts may render a Participant and/or team ineligible.

4. Adjudication

• All teams that have successfully completed their Student Verification Form, Problem Definition, and Motivation Statement will automatically enter the next phase of the competition.
• All successfully submitted Fresh Ideas will be reviewed by The Earth Foundation team. All those submissions that reach outstanding standards, as determined by the final score ranking, will be recognized as The Earth Prize Scholars and then forwarded to The Earth Prize Adjudicating Panel for review.
• The Earth Prize Adjudicating Panel will select the seven Regional Winner teams from The Earth Prize Scholars, which will then move on to the Regional Winners Phase of the competition. It is in The Earth Prize Adjudicating Panel’s sole discretion to determine which Participants advance to the Regional Winners Phase.
• The seven teams proposed by the Adjudicating Panel as The Earth Prize 2025 Regional Winners will present and discuss their Final Idea and Pitch Video in a live presentation to the Adjudicating Panel, including a Q&A session. The Adjudicating Panel will then confirm their selection or interview alternate Scholar teams before making the final selection of the seven Regional Winners.
• All Regional Winners are subject to verification by The Earth Foundation and must meet all eligibility requirements including the execution and return of all necessary documents, or they may be disqualified. The decisions of the Adjudicating Panel will be final and binding.
• There will be public voting to determine which of the seven Regional Winners will become The Earth Prize 2025 Global Winner.
• The Earth Foundation will announce The Earth Prize 2025 Global Winner at The Earth Prize Awards Ceremony.

5. Prizes

6. Participants’ Intellectual Property

The creations, inventions, ideas, and any materials submitted to The Earth Prize will remain the students’ intellectual property. The Earth Foundation has no legal claim over the students’ ideas. The Earth Prize shall not be involved with the securing of trademarks, copyrights or any other legal intellectual property mechanisms on behalf of any of the Participants. No individual involved in The Earth Prize shall appropriate the Participants’ ideas. Likewise, Supervisors and Mentors shall maintain the confidentiality of the Participant(s)’ ideas.

7. Copyright

Participants and Supervisors must make sure that the content submitted to The Earth Prize is original. Submissions should not contain any materials protected by copyright, including music tracks, photos, videos, programs, and texts, that they are not allowed to use. If submissions violate The Earth Prize’s Terms & Conditions or any applicable laws, including intellectual property rights of others (copyright, trademarks, and alike), they are not allowed to submit such content. Participants will be responsible for paying all royalties, fees, and any other monies applicable to their content.

The Earth Foundation owns or is authorized to use most of the content on The Earth Prize online platforms, referred to as “The Earth Foundation Content”. This content includes, but is not limited to, text, images, audiovisual content, source code, trademarks, service marks, and trade names. The Earth Foundation Content is protected by the applicable intellectual property laws and international treaties. Neither Participants nor Supervisors are allowed to copy, distribute, make available, disassemble, make alterations, decompile, reverse engineer, translate, adapt, rent, loan, use, lease, or attempt to grant other rights to the content to third parties, or use any manual or automated means to scrape any content available on the website without asking The Earth Foundation prior permission.

8. Media Waiver

By registering in the competition, Participants authorize The Earth Foundation’s use of their name, likeness, and if provided, picture and bio, for the purposes of promoting The Earth Prize, and agree to indemnify The Earth Foundation against any harm from the use of the Participant’s information. The Earth Foundation may use Participants’ information in publications, including online publications, audiovisual presentations, and promotional literature. Participants will not be entitled to any compensation in connection to The Earth Foundation’s use of their information.

9. Applicable Jurisdiction

These Terms and Conditions shall be governed and interpreted in all respects by the material laws of Switzerland. For any dispute arising from the Terms and Conditions, the exclusive place of jurisdiction shall be Geneva, Switzerland.

10. Privacy

Participants may be contacted to provide additional information and have their information verified. The Earth prize reserves the right to request and require additional information from Participants in order to have their submission considered. For more information about the data privacy notice, please consult: www.theearthprize.org.

11. Limitations of Liability

If, for any reason, The Earth Prize is not capable of running as planned, including infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures or any other causes beyond the control of The Earth Foundation and its Sponsors which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of The Earth Prize, The Earth Foundation reserves the right in its sole discretion to disqualify any individual who tampers with the submission process and to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend The Earth Prize. The Earth Foundation assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect or delay in operation with transmission, communications, line failure, theft, destruction or unauthorized access. The Earth Foundation is not responsible for any problem or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer online systems, servers, equipment or software, failure of any email or submission to be received on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any website, phone lines, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to a Participant's computer related to or resulting from participation in this contest. CAUTION: ANY ATTEMPT BY A PARTICIPANT TO DELIBERATELY DAMAGE ANY WEBSITE OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THE EARTH PRIZE IS A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS AND SHOULD SUCH AN ATTEMPT BE MADE, THE EARTH FOUNDATION RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK DAMAGES TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

The Earth Foundation is not responsible for any late, lost, garbled, misdirected, incomplete, or damaged submissions; any disruptions, injuries, losses or damages caused by events beyond the control of The Earth Foundation or any printing or typographical errors in any materials associated with The Earth Prize. The Earth Foundation is not in any way responsible or liable for the use of the prize money, or for any damage, loss or injury (including death) resulting from participation in The Earth Prize and/or acceptance and use of any prizes won.