Terms and conditions
The European Space Agency (ESA) organises a student contest under the name of 'SUCCESS student contest' (4th edition, released in September 2007), which aims at selecting students' valuable proposals for the utilisation of the International Space station (ISS) and awarding three prizes to the best proposals in accordance with the terms and conditions stated here.
Please read carefully the following terms and conditions; by taking part in the 4th edition of the SUCCESS student contest (hereinafter 'the Contest'), you automatically accept these terms and conditions.
Eligibility
The contest is open to physical individuals that:
are registered as students at any faculty of a University at the date of submitting the first essay as per published Contest schedule;
may be registered in a post-graduate University course (e.g. Master) and are not PhD students;
are nationals of one of the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland; United Kingdom (i.e. all ESA Member States) and Canada;
- are not ESA staff members and/or ESA contractors and/or interns working for ESA's Directorate of Human Spaceflight, Microgravity and Exploration; and shall not have family members and/or relatives acting in such capacity in the above-mentioned ESA's Directorate at any given time during the duration of the Contest.
Procedure
The Contest is divided into three phases, as indicated in more detail on the ESA dedicated web pages under the heading 'Assignment', and the only valid response to the Contest is by:
submitting an essay of max. 800 words in English language;
submitting such essay on-line according to the latest published instructions on the ESA website;
submitting such essay not later than 1st February 2008;
subject to selection of the essay to the second phase of the Contest, responding to the call for detailed experiment proposals through submission of a written proposal of max 10 A4 pages in English language;
- submitting such detailed experiment proposal electronically according to the latest published instructions and deadlines on the ESA web pages dedicated to the Contest.
Awards
The awards are:
for the best selected proposal: a one-year paid internship at ESA's space research and technology centre, ESTEC, in the Netherlands;
for the second-best selected proposal: a trip to see a launch at the European space port in Kourou, French Guiana;
- for the third-best selected proposal: a participation in a conference in Europe related to space activities and the field of study or research of the winner.
The above is only a general description of the awards and more details concerning the awards will be notified to the winners only.
Each award will be assigned ad personam and as such is valid for one person only, this being the author of the selected proposal, or the prime author/coordinator in case the selected proposal is the result of a team effort. Each award is neither transferable nor assignable and no substitution or cash alternative is available.
Notwithstanding the aforementioned, the winner of the one-year paid internship (first prize of the Contest) may share the internship with one or more of the co-author(s) of the selected winning proposal as long as one person only will be present at ESTEC at a given time and the cumulative period of time of the internship will not exceed 12 months duration.
Participant's personal data and privacy
Students participating in the Contest shall provide as part of their essay and proposals a) their full name and place of residence as per their passport or equivalent document for identification purposes; and b) an email address for communication/notification purposes. ESA will notify the results at each stage of the Contest to the relevant participating students according to the above. It is a specific responsibility of the participating students to inform ESA of any change concerning their personal data/contacts information that may occur during the duration of the Contest.
The submitted personal data will be archived by ESA, treated confidentially, and used in the context of the Contest only.
Use of a false name or addresses by any of the participating students in the Contest will disqualify them from the Contest and from receiving any award.
Participant's personal image
Students participating in some of the activities as part of the Contest such as the visit to ESTEC, the award ceremony, and the subsequent award activities of the winners; may be subject of photo and video shooting, including interviews.
By participating in the Contest and taking part in these specific activities the participating students shall be deemed to have granted, free-of-any-charges, the right to use their personal image (e.g. name, voice, public appearance) to ESA for its utilisation of such photos and videos for its public relations and promotion purposes (e.g. publication on ESA website) in relation to the Contest or other ESA student contests and similar education activities of ESA.
Essay and proposals
During the duration of the Contest, ESA will treat essays and/or proposals as confidential. Being an inter-governmental organisation largely funded by Governments' public funds, ESA is expected to inform the general public about its activities and therefore to publish at least general information for public relations purposes (not necessarily detailed scientific/confidential information) concerning the selected (prize winning) proposals at the time of the award ceremony or at any later time (as an example of general information, please refer to the information concerning winning’ proposals of past editions of the SUCCESS student contest that are currently published on this ESA website). In this case, authors of the winning proposals are deemed to have agreed to such publication by taking part in the Contest. Thereby, ESA will seek to conclude a specific agreement with the authors concerned prior to publication only in respect to scientific/confidential information. For the same purposes, and following the termination of the Contest, ESA may also publish information concerning the non-selected essays and/or proposals. In this latter case, ESA will seek to conclude a dedicated agreement with the authors concerned prior to any publication.
In all cases, at the time of publication, ESA will make its best efforts to assert the moral rights of the respective authors.
Despite all ESA's efforts to keep the ideas/information that is included in essays and/or proposals as confidential prior to the publication of the idea/information, the participating students, as authors, understand and agree that ESA does not assume any liability for any damage resulting from such ideas/information becoming public.
Notification of selection
The notified results of the selection of the essay and proposals shall be deemed final and shall not be subject to appeal by the participating students or any other physical or legal entity acting on their behalf or in their interest.
Liability and disputes
By participating in the Contest and to the maximum extent allowed under the applicable law, participating students agree to waive their rights, including the rights of their heirs, personal representatives and assignees, to claim or bring any cause of action against ESA, its officers, employees, affiliated companies and agents, in connection with any damage whatsoever including consequential, direct or indirect damages, that may arise as a result of the participation in the Contest and/or as a result of activities undertaken as a result of the above mentioned awards, including, but not limited to: (a) unauthorized human intervention in the Contest; (b) technical errors related to computers, servers, providers or telephone or network lines; (c) printing errors; (d) errors in the administration of the Contest or the processing of entries; or (e) injury or damage to persons or property which may be caused, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, from participation in the Contest activities and/or in the winners activities as a result of their respective awards, including but not limited to property damage, personal injury and/or death.
Participating students agree that any and all disputes, claims and causes of action arising out of, or connected with, this Contest, or any award, shall be resolved in an amicable manner and should a settlement not be achieved to submit such dispute to arbitration. The arbitration proceedings shall be conducted in accordance with the Rules of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce, in English language and in Paris (France). The award of the International Chamber of Commerce shall be final and binding on the parties.
Applicable law
These terms and conditions shall be governed by the law of France.
Order of precedence
The terms and conditions of the Contest as stated herein shall take precedence over and above any other oral or written communication concerning the Contest that may have taken place earlier.
These terms and conditions also prevail in cases of conflict with information provided in other areas of the ESA website insofar as the Contest is concerned unless these terms and conditions specifically refer to detailed information provided in other web-pages of the ESA website.
Student agreement
By submitting an essay and thereby by taking part in the Contest, you agree to the above terms and conditions without reservation.
