1. Eligibility

The 2023 Strata Innovation Award (the “Award”) is open to students, advisors, faculty, administrators, and staff of all accredited colleges and universities in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia who are: (a) employed by or attend their respective schools during October, November and December of 2022; (b) eighteen (18) years or older at the time of entry; and (c) United States residents. A single entrant may be an individual or may be a group of individuals, as long as each individual meets these eligibility requirements.

Employees, officers, directors and agents of the Sponsor and their immediate family members and household members are not eligible to enter or win. The competition for the Award is subject to federal, state, and local laws and regulations.

2.Sponsor

The Strata Innovation Award is sponsored by Strata Clean Energy, located at 800 Taylor St., Suite 200, Durham, NC 27701.

3. Agreement to Official Rules

Participation in the Strata Innovation Award Competition (the “Competition”) constitutes entrant’s full and unconditional agreement to and acceptance of these Official Rules and the decisions of the Sponsor, which are final and binding. Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify any individual or entrant who Sponsor believes is in violation of these Official Rules. Winning the Award is contingent upon verification of compliance with these Official Rules and fulfilling all other requirements set forth herein.

3. Competition Period

The competition begins on October 17, 2022 at 12:00 PM Eastern Time and ends on February 21, 2023 at 4:00 PM Eastern Time (the “Competition Period”). Entries that are submitted before or after the Competition Period will be disqualified.

4. How to Enter

Submit application and materials by visiting our website stratacleanenergy.com/innovation-award- application and submiting the entry application.

Online entries must be completed and submitted with all materials NO LATER THAN 4:00 PM Eastern Time on February 21, 2023.Sponsor’s computer is the official time-keeping device for this Competition.

5. Submission Requirements

A complete submission will contain the following:
– Completed application form
– Written Proposal

Completed Application Form

Applicants must fully complete the application form. If the project is being submitted as a team, all team members must be included on the application form at the time of submission. Changes cannot be made to the application once it is submitted. Incomplete application forms will not be accepted.

Written Proposal
The Written Proposal should include the following sections:

a) Executive summary

b) Description of the Argivoltaics topic addressed

c) Description of the solution

d) Description of the solution’s impact (energy production, crop or livestock success, etc)

e) Comparison to alternative Agrivoltaics solutions and/or substitutes if any

f) Supporting materials to validate idea/technology/concept

g) Citation of references

Optional information that you may include:

a) Plan for marketing and scaling

b) Financials, including estimated cost to fully develop idea/solution

c) Qualifications of team members

The Written Proposal should meet the following requirements:

a) Includes the name of the primary applicant, phone and email as well as the accredited school’s name

b) Written in English

c) Formatted as a PDF (without passwords)

d) Written in 12-point, double-spaced font with standard margins

e) A maximum of 2,500 words, excluding the following items, which do not count toward the 2,500-word limit:
i. Name of applicant(s), contact information and school name
ii. Figures of graphs/charts with captions summarizing key findings
iii. Financial projections, graphs, or supporting excel files
iv. Citation of references

f) All materials sent in addition to the original written proposal (to include items such as graphics, 3d models, etc.) must Include the primary applicant’s name and brief description in the submitted work for accurate identification.

g) Confidential portions of the Written Proposal must be clearly marked as “confidential.”

h) Supporting calculations should be submitted as an Excel and/or PDF file containing all calculations and/or models completed during your analysis. Include the team name and brief description in the filename of submitted files for quick identification.

Written Proposals may not contain:

(i) any disparaging or defamatory statements (including words or symbols that are widely considered offensive to individuals of a certain race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic group);

(ii) depictions or descriptions of dangerous or illegal activity;

(iii) depictions or descriptions of indecent behavior or obscenities; or

(iv) material that infringes any patent, copyright or other intellectual property rights or misappropriates any trade secrets. Absolutely no plagiarism permitted. Entries may not violate any applicable federal, state, or local laws or regulations in any way as determined by Sponsor, in its sole discretion. Sponsor reserves the right in its sole discretion to disqualify any entry that, in its sole opinion, does not comply with these requirements or these Official Rules.

All entries become the property of the Sponsor and will not be acknowledged or returned. Please send only duplicates of your application, submission, and supporting materials. Subject to Sponsor’s right to publicize the winning entrant and the winning entry, including non-confidential portions of the Written Proposal, entrants will retain all rights, title and interest in and to all patent, copyright, trade secret and other intellectual property rights in and to their entries and Written Proposals.

6. Award Selection

The selection of the winner will be based on the most promising late-stage or deployable Agrivoltaics solution, determined using the following judging criteria:
– 50% Scalability
– 25% Energy Production
– 25% Agriculture Production

Judges will rate how well each entry meets each of the criteria above on a 100-point scale, with 100 being the highest.
In the event of a tie, the entrant with the highest score in scalability will win the Award. If still a tie, the entrant with the highest score in energy production will take home the Award. And if still a tie, the entrant with the highest score in agriculture production will win the award. In all cases, the winner is subject to eligibility verification.

The judging panel of three judges will be composed of renewable energy business leaders, educators, and experts.

On or about March 06, 2023, the judges will select a winner from among all eligible entries received based on the criteria described above. The Sponsor will attempt to notify the potential winner via telephone or email on or about March 07, 2023. If the potential winner cannot be reached or does not respond within five (5) days after the date of the first attempt to contact, the Sponsor may designate the entrant with the next highest score as the potential winner, subject to verification and Award fulfilment requirements. Judges may decide, in their sole discretion, not to award any prizes if no entries are deemed worthy by the judges when applying the judging criteria described above. All decisions of the judges are final and binding.

7. Award

Subject to Section 6, one (1) Award of a maximum of $25,000 will be given to the winning eligible entrant. In order to receive the Award, the potential winner will be required to sign an Affidavit of Eligibility and Publicity and Liability Release within ten (10) days following notification.

If the potential winner is a group of individuals, each individual must sign an Affidavit of Eligibility and Publicity and Liability Release.

If the potential winner does not return the signed Affidavit of Eligibility and Publicity and Liability Release(s) within ten (10) days following notification, Sponsor has the right to disqualify the winner and designate the entrant with the next highest score as the potential winner, subject to eligibility verification and Award fulfilment requirements.

If the potential winner is a group of individuals, the award will be divided equally and separate checks will be issued in the names of all individuals listed on the winning application. Prizes are not transferable.

Winners are solely responsible for all taxes on a prize and any expenses relating to the acceptance and use of a prize. An IRS Form 1099 will be issued to the winning entrant as required.

8. Release and Limitations of Liability

By participating in the competition, each entrant agrees to release and hold harmless the Sponsor, Judges, University of North Carolina and each of their respective officers, directors, employees, representatives and agents (the Released Parties) from and against any claim or cause of action arising out of participation in the Competition or the receipt, use or misuse of the Award, including but not limited to:

(a) any technical errors associated with the Competition, including lost, interrupted or unavailable Internet Service Provider (ISP) network, server, wireless service provider, or other connections, availability or accessibility or miscommunications or failed computer, satellite, telephone, cellular tower or cable transmissions, lines, or technical failure or jumbled, scrambled, delayed, or misdirected transmissions or computer hardware or software malfunctions, failures or difficulties;

(b) unauthorized human intervention in the Competition;

(c) mechanical, network, electronic, computer, human, printing or typographical errors;

(d) lost, late, incomplete, garbled, illegible, undelivered, stolen, damaged, delayed, postage-due or misdirected mail, entries, applications or application downloads,

(e) any other errors or problems in the connection with the Competition, including, without limitation, errors that may occur in the administration of the Competition, the announcement of the winner, the incorrect downloading of the application, the processing of entries application downloads or in any Competition-related materials; or

(f) injury, death, losses or damages of any kind, to persons or property which may be caused, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, from entrants’ participation in the Competition or acceptance, receipt or misuse of the Award (including any travel or activity related thereto). Entrant further agrees that in any cause of action, the Released Parties are also not responsible for any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by site users, tampering, hacking, or by any equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Competition. By participating, each entrant agrees that Sponsor and its agencies may use his or her name, address (city and state only), school name, biographical information and non-confidential portions of the entry submitted by entrant for advertising and promotional purposes in any media now existing or hereinafter devised, without additional compensation, notice, review, or approval, unless prohibited by law. (Tennessee residents need not consent to, or sign any, publicity release). Under no circumstances will any entrant or winner be permitted to obtain awards for punitive, incidental, consequential, indirect or special damages, and entrants and winners waive all rights to have damages multiplied or increased.

9. Miscellaneous

Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to cancel, modify or suspend part or all of this Competition in the event that printing errors, viruses, tampering, fraud, unauthorized intervention or other causes beyond Sponsor’s control, corrupt or impair the administration, security, fairness or proper play of the Competition. If Sponsor, in its sole discretion, elects to cancel, modify or suspend part or all of this Competition, a notice will be posted online at stratacleanenergy.com/strata-innovation-award. In the event of cancellation after commencement of the Competition, sponsor will attempt to award the Award in accordance with Section 6 above based on all entries received up to the time of such cancellation.

10. Disputes

Except where prohibited, each entrant agrees that any and all disputes, claims and causes of action arising out of, or connected with, the Competition or the Award shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action and exclusively by the appropriate court located in Durham County, North Carolina.

All issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation and enforceability of these Official Rules, entrants’ rights and obligations, or the rights and obligation of the Sponsor in connection with the Competition, shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with the laws of North Carolina, without giving effect to any choice of law or conflict of law rules, which would cause the application of the laws of any jurisdiction other than North Carolina.

11. Privacy

Information collected from entrants is subject to Sponsor’s Privacy Policy.

12. Winner List

For a copy of the winners list, click here after March 13, 2023.

Submit Application