Odysseus Contest

Rules

The competition is open to full time students aged between 14 and 18. Eligible to compete are students who at the day of their entry submission will be at least 14 years old and not above 18 years old. Competitors must be attending school at the time of the competition (2012-2013).
All teams must have between 2 and 5 members and only one facilitator – teacher. Students within a team may be from different schools of the same country or different classrooms within a school.
All teams can submit only one project and each student may compete in only one team.
Only registered teams may submit an entry to the Odysseus contest. By registering to take part in the competition, the teams’ coaches should approve the legal terms and the rules of the contest and should confirm that the parents/legal guardians of the participants are informed about their children’s’ participation and have agreed to it.
Odysseus Contest participants shall provide the Odysseus Contest Organizers with certain registration information as set forth in the on-line registration form when registering a team to participate in the Odysseus Contest. The coach of each team must have the authority to confirm and ensure the accuracy of all personal information and agree that the organizers may use information they submit to verify such authority.
Teams may submit a digital entry between 1 July 2012 and 15 February 2013. No submissions will be accepted after this date.
Entries to the Odysseus contest must be submitted only via the Odysseus website. Before a team submits an entry, the team must register and approved by the Organizers. During registration, each team member will receive a unique user name and password. The Organizers may terminate a participant’s or team’s account and block the use of the Odysseus website if a team’s registration is incomplete; data that has been provided is (or the Organizers believe is) untrue, inaccurate, not current, incomplete; or the Organizers are unable to verify any of the team’s registration data.
All entries submitted must be participants’ own work. Participants agree not to include in their entry material that infringes and/or violates any third party’s intellectual property rights, including but not limited to copyright or trademark rights or rights of privacy or publicity.
Any kind of plagiarism is strictly prohibited and will lead to disqualification of participants; duplication of the thoughts or work of another source is allowed but it must be referenced.
Participants are responsible for the content of their entry to the contest. If they disclose personal information in the entry they submit, they make the disclosures at their own risk. Organizers are not responsible for the content that is submitted by the participants.
Participants agree not to submit as entry material that is: defamatory, abusive, harassing, insulting or threatening to any other person; bigoted, hateful or racially offensive; vulgar, obscene or sexually explicit; illegal (or promotes illegal activity).
During the selection of the best projects at European level, first-place honors are awarded without regard to the citizenship or residency of the Odysseus contest participants. The awarding of certificates and prizes, as well as the posting of winners on the Odysseus portal are not constrained by citizenship/ residency.
The entrants are responsible for keeping their team’s account secure and for all activities conducted through their account. The team coach should immediately notify the Organizers of any unauthorized use of his / her team’s account or any breach of the account’s security.
Prior to submission, participants must not have offered any of their entries for any publication, or won, or been runner-up in any other students’ contest with any of their entries.
Eligible for participation are teams, which members are residents of EU members and acceding countries, namely: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Teams from Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Lichtenstein, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Russia, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine would also be able to submit entries and to compete in a parallel contest, following the same procedures for team registration and entries submission.
Trips awarded to the best projects of each category are for one teacher and a maximum of five students, for visiting the European Astronaut Centre in Germany and the Space Expo and the European Space Research and Technology Center of ESA in the Netherlands and for attending the final event, which will be held there in April 2013.
Registration in the Odysseus contest should be made only through the Odysseus contest website.
Entries to the Odysseus contest could be in any of the 23 official languages of the EU. If the entry makes it to the final round of the competition, the team must provide an English summary or a full translation in English of the entry for judging. Entries from Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Lichtenstein, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Russia, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine should be submitted only in English.
Odysseus Contest certificates of participation are provided to all teams submitted projects in compliance with Contest Rules, competition requirements, and submission deadlines. Teams that finish in the top in their country and enter the final round will receive certificates of distinction.
Late entries submitted after the midnight (CET) of 15^th of February 2013 for the Odysseus Contest, and entries not complying with contest rules, legal terms and guidelines provided on the contest website will be disqualified, at the sole discretion of the contest organizers.
Evaluation Panels’ decisions are final and no appeals will be entertained.
Entry materials will not be returned, and as property of the “Odysseus” project, may be used for publicity and/or outreach purposes. Responses will not be provided directly to students. Later request for evaluations cannot be honored.
After the closing of submissions, all entries will be made accessible to the public via the Odysseus portal.
Registration gives the Odysseus competition the right to publish the name, age and nationality of the winning team on the Odysseus website.
Registration gives the Odysseus competition the right to publish or otherwise use the entry in a public exhibition.
Prizes are non-negotiable and non-transferable. The organizers reserve the right to modify or amend the prizes, rules, terms and conditions of the competition at any time.
The Organizers reserve the right to request the return of a prize if, at a later date, an entrant has been discovered to be in breach of these terms.
The organizers of the contest may ask a team to send the physical objects associated with the entry to the Netherlands for an exhibition. The cost for shipping the objects will be paid for by the organizers.