Rules for the Alan Turing Award
The winner will receive :
- a ‘Lexing pack’ worth € 6,000 (excl. VAT) ;
- and a ‘Belfisco pack’ worth €2,500 (excluding VAT).
1) The Lexing packs are reserved for innovative SMEs within the framework of the Jural Boost program and give the right to 40 hours of legal advice at a preferential rate.
This hour credit can then be used for a wide range of services, depending on the choices and needs of the start-up:
- protection of the company’s creations (copyright protection, design registration, trademark registration, initiation of patent registration (through the Gevers office, which is not participating in the prize), etc.)
- drafting of contracts (license, partnership, distribution, confidentiality and non-competition agreements, etc.)
- defense and representation of the company’s interests before courts and tribunals;
- legal advice in IT in IP (by agreement, in other areas of law).
2) The Belfisco package entitles the client to consulting services for the finalization of a business plan or the monitoring of the first accounting period of the company created to develop the project, up to a maximum of 30 hours.
Competition terms and conditions:
The Alan Turing Award is reserved for innovative companies with less than 25 employees.
During a special evening, the participating companies will each be invited to freely present, in 180 seconds, their innovative activity project (a written file having already been sent) to a jury of personalities especially interested in research and development (R&D) activities.
They will then answer the jury’s questions for 180 seconds.
The innovative character of the project, its economic potential and its social utility will be evaluated to award the prize. At the end of the evening, a winner will be chosen.
Conditions of participation:
1) Profile of candidates:
Participation in the prize is reserved for independent entrepreneurs and SMEs with less than 25 employees, having started their activity less than three years ago and established in the Walloon and Brussels regions.
Natural or legal persons who are a subsidiary of a company to which a member of the jury belongs or who are related to a member of the jury may not participate in the competition.
2) Composition of the Jury:
The jury is composed as follows:
- A certified public accountant from Belfisco ;
- A lawyer from Lexing
- One or more persons designated by the first two members for their innovation-oriented profile
The decisions of the jury are taken by majority vote.
3) Submission of applications:
Any person wishing to participate in the competition must complete the following application form, answering mainly the mandatory questions: https://forms.office.com/e/xzZ60cXKFt
The deadline for receiving applications is midnight on 10/09/2023.
4) Opening of applications:
During the week of 11/09/2023, after opening the applications, the members of the jury will meet to organize the pre-selection of the applications received.
During the same week of September 11, 2023, the jury will meet in a closed session to make a pre-selection of the candidates who will be admitted to present their project during the public session of the competition. The maximum number of candidates admitted to present their project at the public session will be seven. The candidates will be invited to this presentation in camera if the jury considers it useful.
The pre-selection will be based on the following criteria: quality of the file submitted; oral presentation of the project (insofar as the jury deems this presentation necessary in view of the application files received); identification of legal and accounting support needs on the basis of the file and the possible presentation.
If, at the end of the pre-selection, the jury considers that no application is worthy of the prize, the jury may decide not to award the prize.
Candidates who have been eliminated at the pre-selection stage are allowed to reapply for the prize in a subsequent year only once.
5) Presentation of projects:
Projects are presented to the jury on the evening of the public session of the competition. This public session will take place the week of 02/10/2023, at 7:00 pm (to be determined).
The order of presentation will be determined by the jury by drawing lots at the end of the pre-selection process.
Each presentation cannot last more than 300 seconds. The jury will interrupt any presentation that exceeds this duration.
6) Deliberation and proclamation of the winner:
At the end of the presentations, the jury retires and deliberates. The decision will be announced at the end of the evening and the prize awarded to the winner.
The jury’s decisions are not subject to appeal. At any time, if it deems it appropriate in light of the applications received or the progress of the competition, the jury may decide to end the competition without awarding the prize.
7) Selection criteria :
In its deliberations, the jury will evaluate the projects according to the following criteria:
- Innovative nature of the project: 20 points
- Social relevance of the project: 20 points
- Economic viability of the project: 30 points;
- Need for legal support for the project: 30 points
The attribution of points by the jury remains secret. The decisions of the jury are sovereign and are not subject to appeal.
In the event of a tie between several candidates, the jury will take into account the history of the project presented, in order to give preference to projects that do not yet have structured external support (such as incubators, subsidies, etc.).
No compensation will be paid to the candidates, regardless of the jury’s decision on their project.