Draft for legal review

Hackathon terms

These terms apply to everyone who applies to the Terumo BCT Africa Hackathon 2026, hosted by Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies (BCT).

Eligibility

Applicants must be of African descent and aged 18–35 years. There is no gender restriction.

Teams

Applicants may apply as individuals or as a pre-formed team. A team may have a maximum of five (5) individuals. Individual applicants may be considered for team formation or matching where appropriate. Every team member must apply individually and be selected. The organisers may form or adjust teams to balance skills.

Attendance

Selected participants must take part in the technical briefing, the preparation period and the final showcase on Friday 13 November 2026.

The hackathon is an African hybrid event. Selected participants who are able to attend physically may participate at Strathmore University, Nairobi. Eligible participants who cannot attend physically may participate virtually, subject to the same technical, submission, demonstration and judging requirements communicated to all selected participants.

Data

Prototypes must use synthetic or openly licensed data only. Real donor, patient or facility records must never be used, even if a team member has access to them.

Intellectual property

Participant ownership. Participants retain ownership of the intellectual property in the solutions, concepts, code, designs, prototypes, documentation and other original materials they build during the hackathon, subject to any third-party rights or pre-existing intellectual property incorporated into their work.
No automatic transfer of ownership. Participation in the hackathon does not, by itself, assign or transfer ownership of any participant idea, solution or intellectual property to Terumo BCT Africa, Terumo BCT or any programme partner.
Further development or commercial use. If Terumo BCT Africa or any programme partner wishes to develop, license, pilot, commercialise or otherwise use a particular participant solution beyond the hackathon, the relevant participant or team will be approached directly to discuss and agree a separate partnership, licence, development, pilot or other commercial arrangement.
Pre-existing and third-party materials. Participants remain responsible for identifying any pre-existing code, open-source software, datasets, models, APIs, content or other third-party materials used in their solution and for complying with the applicable licences, permissions and attribution requirements.
Right to present and evaluate. By participating, teams may be required to present or demonstrate their work to organisers, mentors, judges and the hackathon audience for purposes of programme administration, technical review, judging and showcase. This presentation or evaluation does not change ownership of the underlying intellectual property.
Confidentiality and sensitive information. Participants should not include confidential, proprietary, personally identifiable, patient-level or otherwise sensitive information in a submission unless its use has been expressly authorised and handled in accordance with the approved challenge rules and applicable data-protection requirements.
Responsible development. Solutions should be developed in line with the hackathon's responsible AI, security, privacy, interoperability and technical requirements. Participants remain responsible for ensuring that materials they submit are theirs to use and do not knowingly infringe third-party rights.
Post-hackathon arrangements. Any continued engagement, internship, pilot, partnership, licensing, development or commercial arrangement arising after the hackathon will be subject to separate discussions and, where applicable, separate written terms.

Prize

The hackathon will recognise the overall winning solution with:

Overall winner: USD 5,000 cash prize

The hackathon will recognise one overall winning solution with a USD 5,000 prize. In addition, the programme may create pathways for continued engagement beyond the hackathon, subject to the relevant post-hackathon review, approvals and any separate arrangements agreed with the individuals or teams concerned.

After the hackathon

The hackathon produces concepts and prototypes. Any further development requires separate review and agreement with Terumo BCT.