Startup Contest Rules

1 | General Contest Rules 

  • The Startup DWP Global Summit Award highlights digital applications that significantly impact society and are aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Each entry will be judged by a group of people nominated by GeSI according to the established evaluation criteria. 
  • Entrants agree to the contest rules as detailed on this page by submitting a project. 
  • Entrants must comply with the regulations outlined in the UN Declaration on Human Rights. Submissions that promote war, violence, fraud, racism, or discrimination will be disqualified. Similarly, entries that infringe upon international copyright laws will be excluded. 
  • GeSI assumes no liability for the content and rights of accepted submissions. 

2 | Eligibility 

The Startup DWP Global Summit Award is limited to the participation of startups as defined below: 

  • Be a legally established entity; 
  • Have less than 10 years old; 
  • Have less than 250 employees; 
  • Have an annual turnover of less than 50 million Euros; 
  • Not be a product of a split or transformation from a large company, and not have a majority shareholding, either direct or indirect, from a large company; 
  • Meet one of the following conditions: 
    • Be an innovative company with high growth potential, having an innovative business model, products, or services, and recognized integrity by the local agency (example. In Portugal this falls within ANI – National Innovation Agency, S.A), in the practice of research and development activities or certification of the recognition process for technology sector companies; 
    • Have completed at least one round of venture capital funding; 
    • Have received investment from the local recognized financial institutions, or from funds managed by those institutions, or by its subsidiary companies, or from one of its equity or quasi-equity instruments (example: in Portugal this falls under Banco Português de Fomento, S.A.). 
  • Have paid the 200 Euros entrance fee to the Bank account below. Please enter the name of your project in the description.
    • Name: Global E-Sustainability Initiative
    • Bank Name: Caixa Geral Depósitos, SA
    • BIC: CGDIPTPL
    • IBAN: PT50 0035 0355 00038924 930 57 

3 | Application and Submission Process 

  • Applicants must register and submit project details online via the DWP Global Summit website. 
  • Submission of a project for evaluation does not guarantee any benefits, and decisions cannot be legally contested. 
  • Only complete and properly submitted applications will be reviewed by the jury. 
  • There is a €200 fee for submission. This fee will grant access to the competition and to one general entrance ticket for the three days of the event. 
  • GeSI reserves the right not to confer any prize if the jury determines that no submission sufficiently meets the established criteria. 

4 | Project Criteria 

  • GeSI accepts digital content applications that demonstrate a clear societal impact. While hardware solutions are accepted, they must be fully functional. Applicants should provide user metrics and a pricing model. 
  • Only launched products will be accepted; drafts, prototypes, or incomplete projects are ineligible. Products must be operational and show local impact. 
  • For products older than two years, updates or new features are necessary. 

5 | Rights and Copyright 

  • By submitting a project, entrants grants GeSI with the right to use submitted videos, pictures, and other materials for non-commercial promotional purposes across various media and at events. 
  • Entrants must hold all necessary copyrights and licenses for their project’s content and software. 

6 | Contest Language 

  • All entries and communications must be in English. 

7 | Exclusion and Disqualification 

  • Submissions that are incomplete or do not adhere to GeSI guidelines will be automatically disqualified without notice or legal recourse. 
  • Disqualification may also result from product malfunctions during evaluation, lack of creative rights ownership, copyright infringement, or false registration information. 

8 | Winner Selection 

  • Winners are chosen from among the submissions done at the DWP Global Summit website based on the jury’s published process. Decisions of the jury are final and binding without legal recourse. 
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