Terms & Conditions

1. Agreeing to these terms

By registering for Tech4City, you confirm that you have read these terms and agree to follow them. If you do not agree, please do not register or submit an entry.

We may update these terms when we need to. If we change anything important, we will let participants know.

2. The competition

Tech4City is a global innovation challenge that invites young innovators to solve real city problems using AI and technology. The current cycle follows the dates shown on our timeline, with a project submission deadline of 15 May 2026.

3. Who can join

Tech4City is open to students and young innovators who form a team and register on this website. Entry is free.

You can take part in one team and submit one entry per cycle. We may ask for documents to confirm your eligibility before awarding any prize.

4. Registering

To take part, create an account and give accurate details such as your name and email. You are responsible for the information you provide, and entries based on false or incomplete information may be disqualified.

5. What you submit

Your submission should answer the challenge brief and be in a common format such as PDF, slides, a document, or a video, in English.

It must be your team's own original work. If you include anything created by someone else, you need the right permissions to use it. Submissions that infringe someone else's rights may be disqualified.

6. Originality of your idea and startup

Your idea, project, and any startup or venture you enter must be genuinely your team's own original work. It should be your own concept, and not copied from, or substantially based on, someone else's idea, product, or business without their permission.

By entering, you confirm that your submission is original to your team and does not plagiarise anyone else's work or breach their intellectual property, confidentiality, or other rights. Building on existing tools, open-source components, public data, or published research is welcome, as long as you have the right to use them and you are clear about what is yours and what came from elsewhere.

If we find that an idea or startup is not original, was entered without the right to do so, or was misrepresented as the team's own, we may disqualify the entry and withdraw any prize at any stage, including after results are announced.

7. How entries are judged

A panel of judges reviews entries in rounds, based on merit rather than luck. The main things we look at are:

• Social impact: how relevant and useful the idea is
• Feasibility and technical soundness: how practical and well-built it is
• Creativity and innovation: how original the idea is
• Storytelling and pitching: how clearly you communicate it

8. Prizes

Subject to these terms, the winning teams receive:

• First place: $20,000
• Second place: $10,000
• Third place: $5,000
• Finalists: recognition, additional prizes, and media exposure

9. Sharing and claiming prizes

Each team decides how to share its prize among members. Prizes cannot be transferred or exchanged for cash unless we say otherwise.

If we cannot reach a winner within a reasonable time, they may lose their claim to the prize. If a prize becomes unavailable, we may replace it with one of similar value.

10. Your intellectual property

You and your team keep ownership of your submission and everything you create for it. Nothing in these terms transfers that ownership to us.

By taking part, you give us permission to use your submission to run and judge the competition, and to promote Tech4City, for example by showing it at events or in our marketing, for a reasonable period.

11. Using your name and work

By taking part, you agree that we may use your name, image, city, and submission to publicise the competition, including photos and recordings from our events. This does not entitle you to any payment beyond a prize you may win.

12. Privacy

We collect and use your personal information to run the competition, contact you, award prizes, and promote Tech4City. We take reasonable steps to keep it accurate and secure, and we do not keep it for longer than we need.

You can ask to see or correct your information at any time by emailing us.

13. Participants under 18

If you are under the age of majority where you live, please go through these terms with a parent or guardian and make sure they agree before you register. We handle younger participants' information with extra care and only as the law allows.

14. Fair play

Please take part honestly. Cheating, fake accounts, harassment, or anything that undermines the fairness of the competition can lead to disqualification, with no prize awarded. Our decisions on this are final.

15. Changes and cancellation

We may update, pause, or cancel the competition or these terms if we need to. We will not be liable for doing so, and no compensation is payable. If part of these terms is found to be invalid, the rest still applies.

16. Liability

We provide the website and the competition on an as-is basis. As far as the law allows, we are not responsible for technical problems, lost or late submissions, or any indirect loss that comes from taking part. Taking part means you accept the normal risks of using the internet.

17. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the country where the competition is organised, and any disputes will be handled by the courts there. We will always try to sort out any issue amicably first.

18. Questions

For anything about the competition or these terms, email us at info@tech4city.com.