By submitting an application to participate as a participating teacher or mentor, these terms and conditions apply to you. You agree to abide by, and accept all the terms below.

1. About Science United Festival

1.1 Mission

The Science United Festival provides an online science fair for displaced students and their teachers to share science projects with a global community and receive encouragement and feedback from refugee scientist mentors to help foster a love for science, grow scientific literacy, and spark interest in science as a potential future career.

2.  Goals and Actions

2.1 For students

Science United Festival’s goals are to give refugee/displaced students the opportunity:

1. to present their science project to a global community at the Festival website.
2. to interact and learn from other student groups with similar experience from around the world through the use of the Festival website comments feature with support from their teacher.
3. to get feedback and encouragement from refugee mentors who are professional scientists and science major college/graduate students.
4. to discover the possibility of a career in science by viewing the refugee mentors’ video-stories available in English and each mentors’ native language.
5. to build their CV and receive a certificate for their participation.

2.2 For teachers

Science United Festival aims to give refugee/displaced students’ teachers the opportunity to build their network and participate in a community of educators who work in the same context as them. Participating educators will also receive support for their project through mentorship and professional learning opportunities. Following the Festival, educators will be awarded a certificate for their participation and receive credit for their work on the Science United Project and Science United Festival’s website.

Science United Festival’s goals are to give the opportunity for refugee/displaced students’ teachers:

1. To build their network and participate in a community of teachers who work in the same context and interact through the Festival website and teacher meetings.
2. To motivate and support their students to work together on an exciting project and to share their scientific learning through the Festival website.
3. To receive support about their project through professional learning opportunities and mentorship from the Festival Organizing Committee.
4. To receive credit for their project on the Science United Project and Science United Festival’s website.
5. To be awarded a certificate for their participation in the Festival.

2.3 For mentors

Science United Festival’s goals are to give the opportunity for refugee/displaced mentors:

1. To serve as a role model for vulnerable students.
2. To motivate students with similar life experiences by sharing their journey of becoming a scientist in a video-story produced in collaboration with the Festival.
3. To build their CV and receive acknowledgement of their participation with a dedicated page featuring their picture, their bio and their video-story at the Festival website.
4. To be endorsed on social media and receive a certificate of participation.
5. To build their network and participate in a community that supports science for refugee students by interacting through the Festival website and mentor meetings.

3. Teachers

3.1 Who can apply?

Educators working with displaced students (refugee, asylum seeker, migrant, internally displaced) who are currently teaching science or are aiming to teach science in the next months.

While the Festival prioritizes classrooms with displaced (refugee, asylum seeker, migrant, internally displaced) students, teachers who have students from minority, vulnerable, or indigenous backgrounds are encouraged to apply on behalf of their classes as well.

3.2 Teacher step-by-step participation guide

In order to fully participate in the Science United Festival, teachers are expected to follow the steps below:

1. Inform their students about the Science United Festival and make sure the whole team is interested in participating
2. Fill out the application form
3. Receive confirmation of their participation (see below about the selection procedure)
4. Complete the Child Protection Training Webinar and agree to abide by the expectations outlined in the Science United Festival’s Child Protection Policy
5. Make the most of the professional learning opportunities offered by the Festival, such as webinar video-assets and/or live online workshops to support their project
6. Watch the Festival mentors’ video stories with their students
7. Develop with the students the team logo and a paragraph description about their team and send them to the Festival Organizing Committee.
8. Have consent forms signed for each student and sent to the Festival Child Protection Committee.
9. Send to the Festival Organizing Committee their project plan for a special science activity they want to teach or a scientific fact relevant to their community/school they want to present.
10. Receive support from the Festival Organizing Committee
11. Join Whatsapp community and/or Facebook group of participating teachers
12. Follow the project timeline, encourage students to actively participate in the development of the project, teach and document the activities, and prepare the video.
13. Send the video to the Festival Organizing Committee
14. Agree on the potential edits on the project video and its uploading to Science United Project’s YouTube channel and the Festival’s Website.
15. Exchange feedback with fellow participating teams on their projects. (1 teaching hour)
16. Read feedback from mentors with their team of students (1 teaching hour)
17. Take part at the honorary ceremony at the end of May.
18. Receive the certificates for them and their students via email and print via mail
19. Complete a survey about their experience participating in the Science United Festival

3.3 Teacher Responsibilities

The educators’ participation is described by the following steps (expected involvement: approximately 5-8 teaching hours (see below), 3 Teacher Community Meetings (approx. 1 hour each), 4 hours of training (optional), plus time for the project planning and preparation:

1. Apply by January 2025 [exact deadline to be announced].
2. Complete the Child Protection Training Webinar and agree to abide by the expectations outlined in the Science United Festival’s Child Protection Policy
3. Send the signed consent forms for students’ participation.
4. Participate in the training webinars that aim to support their project.
5. With the team of students, develop a logo and write a paragraph for the team’s page (1-2 teaching hours).
6. Send a project plan and receive individualized support.
7. Facilitate and record the project with the students.(2-4 teaching hours)
8. Prepare and send the project video.
9. Agree to upload project video to the Science United Project’s YouTube channel and to your team’s page at the Festival’s website.
10. During the Festival, in April and May 2025, watch fellow participant teams’ projects and exchange comments with the team of students. (1 teaching hour)
11. Present mentor feedback to students. (1 teaching hour)
12. Take part in the honorary online ceremony at the end of May 2025
13. Distribute the certificates to your students.

3.4 Teacher rights and privacy

Requested data and data use

Personal and sensitive data, including but not limited to:

• Full name of teacher
• Email of teacher
• Phone number of teacher
• Consent forms for each student with the student’s full name signed by their parent or guardian in pdf or picture. The consent will cover students’ participation at the Festival and, if their parent/guardian allows it, their audio recording.
• Work experience and education of teacher
• School name and location (city)

Purpose for collecting Personal Data:

The Science United Project Non-Profit Organization and the Science United Festival will keep this data for contact and child protection purposes. The teacher name and the name and location (city) of the school will be published at the Festival website, unless requested otherwise by the teacher. Teacher’s work experience and education may be used for educational research, with the consent of the teacher at the application form.

Information and materials for the Festival:

• Teacher application answers
• Demographics of student team: number of boys and girls from each cultural background
• Team name, team logo and team description
• Project plan
• The team’s project video
• Recordings of teacher meetings and/or webinars

Basis for the collection of Personal Data Processing of the personal data is based on Teacher’s consent, the Science United Project Non-Profit Organization and the Science United Festival legitimate interest to accomplish the above mentioned goal and their obligation to comply with applicable law. To that end, the Science United Project Non-Profit Organization and the Science United Festival will use the above mentioned Information and materials for the purposes of the Festival (publish part or all of it at the Festival website), for impact measurement and for educational research.

3.5 Teachers access to Festival website

Teachers will have access to the website using personalized log-in information in order to comment on the participating teams’ projects and access the professional development materials. They are expected to not share this log-in info with their students or anyone else. By participating in the Project, certain Proprietary and/or Confidential Information might be disclosed or become known to the teachers. The teachers hereby pledge not to disclose any such Information to third parties, in compliance with all the relevant laws and regulations. For any issues, the teachers shall communicate with the Science United Festival Organizing Committee.

3.6 Privacy declaration

The Science United Project Non-Profit Organization with the support of the Blossom Hill Foundation is committed to processing information in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). As participant, you may exercise the following rights at all times, according to GDPR:

1. Right to be informed how data is collected, processed and stored, and for what purposes.
2. Right to access your personal data.
3. Right to have incorrect or incomplete data corrected.
4. Right to have your personal data permanently deleted from all our databases.
5. Right to block or suppress personal data from being processed or used.
6. Right to move, copy, or transfer your personal data from one data controller to another, in a safe and secure way, in a commonly used and machine-readable format.
7. Right to object to the processing of your personal data without your explicit consent.
8. Right to demand human intervention, rather than having important decisions made solely by algorithm.
9. Right to lodge a complaint with a Supervisory Authority.

Before processing participant requests, we may ask for your identification to ensure you are the requestor. In certain situations, and subject to applicable law, we may not be able or obliged to grant part or all of your individual requests. We also have the right to refuse and/or charge a monetary fee for requests which are manifestly unfounded or excessive, for example because of their repetitive character.

For more information on this topic, please read our privacy policy here.

If you would like to stop receiving email communications from The Science United Project Non-Profit Organization, please email us to scienceunitedproject@gmail.com.

To exercise your rights or if you have any question or concern, you may contact scienceunitedproject@gmail.com.

Identity and Contact details of the Data Controller:

Science United Project Non-Profit Organization

65 Socratous str., 17672 Kallithea, Greece

scienceunitedproject@gmail.com

3.7 Selection procedure for teachers

Kindly note regarding the selection of applicants, the Science United Festival Organizing Committee retains the sole right to select the classes to participate in the Festival. Applications will be reviewed by the Science United Festival Organizing Committee and the participants will be selected according to the following criteria:

1. Classes with students who identify as displaced.*
2. Teacher’s motivation to participate in the Festival.
3. Teacher’s ability to commit to the obligations outlined above and on the teacher application.

The Science United Festival Organizing Committee will consider all applications that meet the above criteria and will choose as many teams as the available resources allow.

*While the Festival prioritizes classrooms with displaced (refugee, asylum seeker, migrant, internally displaced) students, teachers who have students from minority, vulnerable, or indigenous backgrounds are encouraged to apply on behalf of their classes as well.

4. Mentors

4.1 Who can apply?

Refugee or displaced professional scientists or graduate students enrolled as science majors.

Mentors are of fundamental importance for Science United Festival’s impact on participant students. By sharing their story, their cultural background, their dreams and positive words, the mentors will encourage participating students from around the world to be optimistic, resilient, and continue their academic efforts in science.

4.2 Mentor obligations

The mentor’s role consists of the following obligations (expected involvement: approximately 15 hours):

1. Complete the Festival’s Child Protection Training Webinar and agree to abide by the expectations outlined in the Science United Festival’s Child Protection Policy
2. Introduce themselves, their story of displacement, and their science journey in a short video-story in English and their native language. Guiding questions are available on the application form below. Mentor video-stories will be uploaded on YouTube and embedded on a dedicated Mentors page at the Science United Festival’s website (with mentor’s written consent). The video-stories will be shared on the Science United Project and Blossom Hill Foundation social media channels (with mentor’s written consent) to facilitate communications and promote the Festival.
   Watch the Science United Festival 2022 mentor video-stories here.
3. Record an informative short video (<1min) explaining the Festival in their native language. Script will be provided.
4. Meet and communicate via email with the Festival Organizing Committee to discuss the mentor role, as well as the storyboard and editing of the video-story.
5. Provide encouraging feedback via written comments or video to student projects during the Festival period (April-May, 2025).
6. Take part in an online honorary ceremony at the end of May 2025.

4.3 Mentor rights

None of the responses or information submitted in the application form will be shared with any third parties or posted publicly on the Science United Festival platform, Science United Project’s YouTube channel, or social media pages without written consent from the applicant.

The Science United Project with the support of the Blossom Hill Foundation is committed to processing information in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). As participant, you may exercise the following rights at all times, according to GDPR:

1. Right to be informed how your image and personal information provided is used and for what purpose.
2. Right to access your image and video-story.
3. Right to have your image and video-story deleted from all Science United Project’s databases.
4. Right to request that your image and video-story shall not be processed or used.
5. Right to request a copy of your image and video-story in a commonly used and machine-readable format.

To exercise your rights or if you have any question or concern, you may contact scienceunitedproject@gmail.com.

4.4 Selection procedure for mentors

Kindly note regarding the selection of applicants, the Science United Festival Organizing Committee retains the sole right to select the Volunteer Mentors to participate in the Science United Festival. Applications will be reviewed by the Science United Festival Organizing Committee and the candidates will be selected according to the following criteria:

1. Candidate’s responses to the mentor application form illustrating their motivation to serve as mentors for displaced students
2. Candidate’s inspirational journey to becoming a scientist
3. Candidate’s ability to commit to the obligations outlined above and on the mentor application.

All selected candidates will be required to sign an agreement with Science United Project Non-Profit Organization stating their rights and obligations regarding their participation in the Science United Festival.

5. Limitations of Liability

EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT PROHIBITED BY APPLICABLE LAWS, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT IN NO EVENT WILL Science United Project Non-Profit Organization BE LIABLE OR OTHERWISE RESPONSIBLE TO YOU FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL AND/OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, FOR ANY REASON(S) OR FOR ANY CAUSE(S), REGARDLESS OF WHETHER Science United Project Non-Profit Organization IS INFORMED OF THE POSSIBILITY THAT SUCH DAMAGES MAY EXIST.

ANY CLAIM OR CAUSE OF ACTION ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO USE OF THE APPLICATIONS/SERVICES AND/OR THESE TERMS MUST BE FILED WITHIN ONE (1) YEAR AFTER SUCH CLAIM OR CAUSE OF ACTION AROSE.

6. Child Protection Policy

Science United Project Non-Profit Organization is fully committed to safeguarding the welfare of all children participating in Science United Festival. It recognizes the responsibility to promote safe practice and to protect children from harm, abuse, and exploitation. For the purposes of this policy and associated procedures a child is recognized as someone under the age of 18 years.

Staff and volunteers will work together to embrace difference and diversity and respect the rights of children and young people.

This document outlines Science United Project’s commitment to protecting children.

These guidelines are based on the following principles:

• The welfare of children is the primary concern.
• All children, whatever their age, culture, disability, gender, language, racial origin, socio-economic status, religious belief and/or sexual identity have the right to protection from all forms of harm and abuse.
• Child protection is everyone’s responsibility.
• Children have the right to express views on all matters which affect them, should they wish to do so.
• Organizations shall work in partnership together and with teachers, schools, and all stakeholders to promote the welfare, health, and development of children.

Science United Project Non-Profit Organization will:

• Promote the health and welfare of children in coordination with the Festival’s participating educators by providing opportunities for them to take part in science activities safely.
• Respect and promote the rights, wishes and feelings of children in coordination with the Festival’s participating educators.
• Promote and implement appropriate procedures for their participation in Science United Festival to safeguard the well-being of children and protect them from abuse.
• Recruit, train, support and supervise its staff, members, volunteers, and mentors to adopt best practice to safeguard and protect children from abuse and to reduce risk to themselves.
• Require staff, members, volunteers, and mentors to adopt and abide by this Child Protection Policy and these procedures.
• Inform and train the Festival’s participating teachers and educators to adopt and abide by this Child Protection Policy and these procedures.
• Respond to any allegations of misconduct or abuse of children in line with this Policy and these procedures as well as implementing, where appropriate, the relevant disciplinary and appeals procedures.
• Establish the Science United Festival’s Child Protection Committee to observe guidelines issued by Greek or International Child Protection Committees for the protection of children and regularly monitor and evaluate the implementation of this Policy and these procedures.

Science United Festival child protection specifics:

• Science United Festival is an online science fair for displaced students and their teachers that will be hosted in the website: scienceunitedfestival.com
• Teachers will prepare a science project video with their students which will be made available for the public on the Festival website, Science United Project’s YouTube channel and social media.
• Teachers will apply to participate in the Festival as a team with their students.
• Students cannot apply to participate in the Festival on their own, they need to apply as a team through their teacher.
• Teachers/mentors are required to participate in a webinar and complete a quiz regarding this Child Protection Policy
• Teachers/mentors are required to sign an agreement stating that they abide by this Child Protection Policy.
• All communications and interactions with the participating teams will occur through their teachers.
• Teachers will register and have access to the comments feature of the Festival’s website representing their team.
• The Festival will recruit refugee scientist mentors who will share their journey to becoming a scientist in a video-story available at the Festival’s website.
• The Festival will require teachers to send consent forms signed by the parent/guardian of each participating child. There is an option for consent on audio recording of the students’ voice that is required for students whose voice will be present in the participation video.
• The Festival will not share any student names with anyone and will only keep the data in order to make sure there is consent for their participation and to produce the students’ certificates, which will be sent in print via mail and in pdf form via email to the teacher, who will be responsible to distribute the certificates to the students.
• The Festival will share teachers’ names and school names, number of male and female students, age group and cultural background only with the written consent of the teacher.

The Festival will not allow staff, members, volunteers, mentors or participating teachers to publish any student personally identifiable information (PII) in the Festival website or the Festival social media. By personally identifiable information (PII) we mean data relating directly or indirectly to a student, from which the identity of the student can be determined. More specifically: student full name, picture or video containing the student’s face and/or the student’s phone number, address or email.

• The Festival will require its staff, members, volunteers and mentors not to contact students in any way. In case students contact someone from the staff, members, volunteers and mentors, they are required to refer to the Science United Festival Child Protection Committee for instructions at scienceunitedfestival@gmail.com .

7. Miscellaneous

7.1 The headings contained in these Terms are for reference only and shall have no effect on the interpretation and/or application of these Terms. The Science United Project Non-Profit Organization’s failure to enforce a breach by you of these Terms shall not waive   or release you from such breach and shall not waive, release or prevent the Science     United Project Non-Profit Organization from enforcing any subsequent breach by you of these Terms. These Terms and any rules, terms or policies referenced herein or incorporated herein, and any Panel-specific requirements, represent the entire understanding and agreement between the Science United Project Non-Profit Organization and you with respect to the subject matter hereof.

7.2 This Policy and these Procedures will be regularly reviewed:

• In accordance with changes in legislation and guidance on the protection of children or following any changes within Science United Project Non-Profit Organization.
• Following any issues or concerns raised about the protection of children within the Science United Project Non-Profit Organization.
• In all other circumstances, at least every three years.