1. Who these terms bind

"You" means a visitor, an applicant, an accepted student, an adult lead, a school, or a partner, depending on context. "TGA", "we", and "the Award" mean Tech Galaxy Award. Mentors and panelists who are scholars from NUS, NTU, HKU, or the University of Cambridge act in their personal academic capacity unless a separate written agreement says otherwise. Those university names on this site describe the backgrounds of people in the room. They do not make those universities parties to this contract.

2. The programme we actually run

TGA is an annual seven-day intensive in Singapore for teams of eight secondary-school or university students, with a published rubric, a live defense, and a Galaxy of honors. Cohort size is capped. Selection is competitive. We may cancel, postpone, or change venue for reasons of safety, law, or force majeure, and we will then work in good faith on refunds or a deferred seat. We do not guarantee that any particular scholar, building, or guest will appear in a given year.

We do not run Regeneron ISEF, SSEF, iGEM, the James Dyson Award, Imagine Cup, or the World Scholar’s Cup. References to those events on The Field are landscape description, not a joint venture.

3. Applications

An expression of interest is not an offer. A cohort offer is an offer. You accept it by returning the confirmation we send and paying the programme fee, or by returning a completed bursary confirmation if we have awarded aid. You warrant that the information in your application is true. Fabricated transcripts, invented awards, or a team roster of people who do not exist are grounds for immediate withdrawal without refund.

4. Fees, bursaries, refunds

The programme fee for a given cohort is stated in the Stage 1 materials, not always on the public homepage. It covers the items listed on Register. It does not cover international travel, travel insurance, or visa fees. Need-based bursaries are discretionary. A bursary can cover up to the full programme fee; it does not automatically cover flights.

If an accepted team withdraws in time for a named alternate to take the seat, we will refund the fee minus unrecoverable housing and catering costs, itemised. If a team withdraws too late for an alternate to travel, or does not arrive, the fee is not refundable except where Singapore law requires otherwise or where we agree in writing that a medical or political emergency applies. We do not refund a change of mind after visas are issued.

5. Conduct during the intensive

Students and adult leads agree to the safeguarding policy issued to accepted teams, to Singapore law, and to ordinary academic honesty. Harassment, violence, academic fraud (including presenting another team's work, or an undisclosed generative-model dump, as the team's reasoning), or refusal to participate in the defense may result in removal from the cohort. Removal for cause is not a refund event. The adult lead is responsible for the team's whereabouts outside programmed hours.

AI tools may be used as tools. They may not be used as the author of the defense. If a panelist asks "did a model write this paragraph?" the honest answer must be available. Hiding the use of a model is a conduct issue; citing it is not.

6. Intellectual property

Teams retain copyright in the work they create during the week, except that TGA receives a non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free licence to use, reproduce, and display that work for education, archive, and non-commercial communication about the Award (including the yearbook and this site). We will not sell a team's prototype to a vendor. We may publish a case study of a Supernova or Polaris project. If a case study would identify a minor by full name, we will seek the release described in the Privacy policy.

The TGA name, the Galaxy award names, the logo at addtu/tgalogo01.svg, and the certificate design are TGA's. You may not use them to imply that a school, product, or other competition is endorsed by us. Accepted teams may use the logo on team shirts and internal slides during the cycle. Press may use the logo with credit. Everyone else should ask.

7. Certificates

Every participant who completes the intensive in good standing receives a TGA-CERT identity and a certificate of participation. Galaxy honors are added to the record when conferred. Certificates are verifiable at verify.html. They are not academic credit, not a visa, not a university offer, and not an ISEF or iGEM credential. Forgery, alteration, or sale of a TGA certificate is a violation of these terms and may be a crime. We will invalidate a code that we reasonably believe was issued in error or obtained by fraud, and we will say so on the verification page.

8. Website

The site is provided as-is. We try to keep verification accurate and the calendar honest. We do not warrant uninterrupted access. Do not scrape the verification endpoint. Do not attempt to access staff issuance pages; they are not a public puzzle. Content on this site (except team work we display under licence, and except trademarks of other organisations named for landscape context) is TGA's.

9. Medical and travel risk

Singapore is a well-run city. It is still a city. Students travel internationally at their own residual risk. You are responsible for insurance, vaccinations, and visa eligibility. TGA is not a healthcare provider. We will call emergency services if needed. We will not administer a medication we have not been briefed on in the medical form.

10. Liability

To the extent permitted by law, TGA's liability to you in connection with the programme or this site is limited to the programme fee you actually paid for the relevant cohort (zero, if you did not pay a fee). We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, lost admission chances, or the failure of a third-party event (ISEF, iGEM, a visa office, an airline) that we do not control. Nothing in these terms excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for fraud, or for any liability that Singapore law does not allow to be limited.

11. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of Singapore. Courts of Singapore have exclusive jurisdiction, except that we may seek injunctive relief elsewhere to protect the certificate system or the trademark. If a provision is unenforceable, the rest remains.

12. Changes

We may update these terms for future cohorts. The version linked from your offer letter governs that cohort. Website terms update when the date at the top of this page changes.

13. Contact

info@tga.org. Say "Terms" in the subject if the mail is about this document. Say "Applications" if it is about a seat. We answer every email — usually within two business days, always within five.