Terms & Conditions

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

Parties
1. The Prize is run by Sony Group Corporation, a company registered in Japan and registered office at 1 –7-1 Konan, Minato City, Tokyo 108-0075 Japan, under their brand name Sony Women in Technology Award with Nature, in collaboration with Springer Nature Limited., a company incorporated in the UK (together, the “Promoter”).

Eligibility
1. To be eligible to enter the Prize, the applicant for the Prize (“Applicant”) must at the point of application for the Prize (“Application”):
  1. self-identify as a woman. We embrace an inclusive definition of ‘woman’ and ‘women’, welcoming trans women, genderqueer and non-binary people.;
  2. be employed as a researcher at a university, a research institute or a university spin out company;
  3. work in the field of research and/or development in any aspect of technology encompassed by the following definition: physical or digital tools and solutions created by applying mathematics and physical science for achieving practical goals.
  4. be an early to mid career researcher. We define early career as within 15 years from the completion of your undergraduate degree in a technology related field and mid career as between 15-25 years from the completion of your undergraduate degree in a technology related field; and
  5. be a full or part time employee of a research institution, including those on fixed term contracts or,
  6. an owner or employee of a spin out. The spinout should be defined to be majority owned by a university and only co-owned by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs are defined businesses with fewer than 250 employees, and a turnover of less than €50 million, or a balance sheet total of less than €43 million.
2. Applicants can reapply if not successful and can apply if they are a past recipient of Sony funding. You may enter the programme more than once, but no more than three times in total and may not appear on the shortlist more than twice, unless you're progressing from early-career to mid-career stage.
3. The Promoter reserves the right to verify the eligibility of Applicants.

Criteria for Application
1. Applicants will be required to fully complete and submit the Prize Application form online and supply all relevant supporting materials.
2. Applicants will also need to provide personal/institution details and a biography. Full details are available in the guidelines for Applicants.
3. Applications must be in English.
4. Applications can be submitted between 12:00 am GMT on 6 March 2024 and 11:59 pm GMT on 31 May 2024.

Exclusions
1. Please note that the Prizes are not open at any stage to:
  1. persons resident in countries or territories where local, state, provincial or national laws prohibit the promotion of, operation of or participation in such Prizes or receiving prizes;
  2. persons resident in Afghanistan, Burma/Myanmar, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Russia, Belarus and the territories of Crimea, Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya or other sanction-sensitive countries or regions as updated from time to time;
  3. any individual named on any lists of persons or entities subject to economic sanctions maintained by Japan, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the United Nations, as updated from time to time;
  4. directors or employees (or members of their immediate families) of the Promoter and affiliates of Sony Group Corporation;
  5. any current members of the judging panel or ambassadors (or members of their immediate families and immediate colleagues, defined as sharing or having shared, or collaborated with, a laboratory or team that a member of the judging panel concurrently worked or collaborated with); or
  6. previous winners of the Prizes at mid-career level.
2. Applications received after the deadline will not be accepted.
3. Complete Applications must be in English and include all sections requested by the Promoter.
4. Incomplete Applications may be declared ineligible, and Applicants may not be given the opportunity to re-submit or alter their Application.

Judges, Shortlist Process and Winners
1. An expert panel convened by the Promoter (“Panel”) will review all Applications. The Panel will exclude Applications deemed ineligible. The Panel will select a shortlist of outstanding Applications. Each shortlisted Application will be featured on the Prize website.
2. The shortlisted Applicants (“Shortlisted Applicant”) will be notified on or before 30 September 2024 and announced during October 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.
3. The winner will be notified on or before November 2024 and announced during February 2025. The winner will be required to confirm acceptance of the Prize within 14 calendar days and may be required to complete and return an eligibility form. If the winner does not accept the Prize within 14 days of being notified, they will forfeit 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.
4. The Panel will make up 100% of the votes. The Panel will choose a winner from the Shortlisted Applicants. The Panel will consist of a chief judge and individuals including independent experts. In the event of a tie, the chief judge of the Panel will make the final decision. Any decision will be final and binding and no further communication will be entered into in relation to it.
5. The Promoter 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. Similarly, a small weighting may be added for disclosed disabilities. 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.

Prize
1. The winning prizes (“Prize”) consist of the following:
  1. Three prizes in the sum of US$250,000 to be used to further the winners’ research;
  2. an invitation to attend a Prize ceremony taking place in Japan in February 2025 to be confirmed by the Promoter (the “ Ceremony”), including:
    1. reasonable transport from the winner’s nearest international airport to the Prize Ceremony (for example, an economy class international flight);
    2. two nights’ accommodation at a suitable local hotel, breakfast included;
    3. two airport transfers to the hotel; and
    4. reasonable expenses in the form of a US$60 per diem allowance.
      1. Note that in the event that it is not possible or not advisable to hold such a ceremony in February 2025, an alternative means of making the Prize presentation will be decided, at the discretion of the Promoter.
2. Shortlisted Applications will receive:
  1. an invitation to attend the Ceremony, including:
    1. reasonable transport from the winner’s nearest international airport to the Ceremony (for example, an economy class international flight);
    2. two nights’ accommodation at a suitable local hotel, breakfast included;
    3. two airport transfers to the hotel; and
    4. reasonable expenses in the form of a US$60 per diem allowance.
      1. Note that in the event that it is not possible or not advisable to hold such a ceremony in February 2025, an alternative means of making the Prize presentation will be decided, at the discretion of the Promoter.
3. For the invitations to the Ceremony outlined in clause 6, the following statements apply:
  1. carrier’s terms of carriage apply;
  2. winners are solely responsible for obtaining their own visas, vaccines and travel insurance;
  3. if the Prize winner cannot attend either or both events for any reason then there is no cash equivalent for the flights, hotel, per diem and transfers;
  4. if the winner cannot attend the Ceremony for any reason, the Prize will be delivered to the winning Applicant; and
  5. local transfers to the nearest international airport are not included unless the winner is from a Springer Nature ResearchforLife country.
4. The winner must confirm through signature of a prize agreement that the Prize will be used to further their research. Failure to do so could result in the prize being revoked.
5. The Prize is non-transferable and non-negotiable.
6. Winning Applicants will be required to formally accept their Prize via email within 14 calendar days, and may be required to provide confirmation of eligibility. If a winner does not accept the Prize within 14 calendar days of being notified, they may forfeit the Prize and the Prize and Promoter reserves the right to choose another winner.
7. The Panel’s decision is final and the Promoter reserves the right not to correspond on any matter, including, without limitation, inquiries from Applicants about reasons of selection or non-selection.
8. Any government officials who enter the Promotion are responsible for ensuring that they may enter and/or receive a prize if they win, and that the prize does not exceed the relevant limit for their role and jurisdiction.
9. Winning Applicants will be required to provide their bank details, and the Prize will be paid into the winner’s account. The winners are fully responsible for any tax that may be liable on the Prize.

Privacy and Publicity
1. All Applicants expressly agree and approve that all submitted personal data regarding Applicants is subject to and will be treated in a manner consistent with the Promoter’s Privacy Policy, accessible at: Sony privacy policy, and Springer Nature privacy policy.
2. Springer Nature and Sony will use your personal data as part of, and to communicate with you about the Sony Awards and Nature Awards programmes. For more information see Springer Nature privacy policy here. For this award Springer Nature and Sony will also share your details with each other in relation to the Prize Sony privacy policy. Please see Sony’s privacy policy for information on how they independently process your personal data. As independent data controllers; your data will be transferred to Sony’s offices in Japan. On the basis of article 45 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR) Japan offers an adequate level of data protection so no additional safeguards are required. You can remove your details by emailing awards@nature.com and sgc-wit-award@sony.com.
3. Applicants agree that 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 we will retain your personal information for the time that we are allowed to in accordance with applicable law, or if there are outstanding claims or complaints that will reasonably require your personal information to be retained.
4. By participating in the Prize, Applicants acknowledge that they have read and accepted the Promoter’s Privacy Policy which shall be deemed to be applicable to the Prize Application.
5. The Application form used for the Prize is hosted by Submittable. By participating in the Prize, Applicants give their consent to, such use, processing, and transfer as required by all applicable data protection laws.
6. The Shortlisted Applicants and winners must participate in interviews,contribute content such as presentations or talks, and any other similar promotional activities, after the Prize results have been announced, at the reasonable request of the Promoter.
7. All Shortlisted Applicants must answer profile questions and provide a headshot photograph to the Promoter. The profile and questions will be used by the Promoter on the Prize website. The name, region of residence, profile and likeness of the winner and Shortlisted Applicants may be used by the Promoter for Prize and event publicity in any form including on the Promoter’s website and social media pages at no cost to the Promoter.
8. Each Shortlisted Applicant shall keep the status and the listing for the Prize completely confidential until after the public announcement of the Shortlist by the Promoter. The winner agrees to keep the results of the Prize completely confidential until after the public announcement of the winner by the Promoter.
9. The winner and Shortlisted Applicants may be asked to participate in the Panel for the Prize in the following year.
Miscellaneous
1. No purchase is necessary to apply for the Prize and would not increase your chances of winning.
2. The Promoter accept 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.
3. 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 Prize website, or to be acting in any manner deemed to be disruptive of or prejudicial to the operation or administration of the Prize or otherwise in a manner not in keeping with the Promotor’s standards around ethics and research integrity.
4. The Promoter reserve the right to withdraw the award of the Prize from any winner or Shortlisted Applicant in the event that the Promoter reasonably suspects: any error in the Applicant’s Application form; any problem with the research programme to which the Application relates; or that the Applicant has acted in a manner inconsistent with the Promoter standards around ethics and research integrity.
5. The Promoter may, in its sole discretion, withdraw the 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 Prize into disrepute.
6. The Promoter will not engage in any acts prohibited by applicable economic sanctions laws, including, but not limited to, processing of prize money remittance involving financial institutions subject to economic sanctions as receiving or intermediary bank.
7. Other than for death or personal injury arising from gross negligence of the Promoter, so far as is permitted by law, the Promoter hereby shall have no liability for any loss, damage, cost and expense, whether direct or indirect, howsoever caused in connection with the Prize. All activities are undertaken at the Applicant’s own risk.
8. 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 discretion. No cash equivalent to the Prize is available.
9. These terms and conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law. Disputes arising in connection with this Agreement shall be finally resolved by arbitration administered by the London Court of International Arbitration (the “LCIA”) in accordance with the LCIA Rules (the “Rules”), which Rules are deemed to be incorporated by reference into this clause.

Last updated: March 2024