Legal
Terms and Conditions
These Terms and Conditions govern participation in the Future Caribbean Global AI Buildathon. By submitting an application, each applicant and each member of their team accepts these Terms in full.
These Terms and Conditions govern participation in the Future Caribbean Global AI Buildathon. By submitting an application, each applicant and each member of their team accepts these Terms in full. Applicants who do not accept these Terms should not apply.
Future Caribbean is the organiser of the event. References to “we,” “us,” or “the organiser” mean Future Caribbean. References to “you” or “applicants” mean each individual who applies and each team member on whose behalf an application is made. References to “the event” or “the Buildathon” mean the Global AI Buildathon 2026, including the application period, the selection process, the remote build period, and the announcement of winners.
01 Event Structure and Timeline
1.1The Buildathon is a fully remote event. Participants do not travel to participate. All activity takes place online.
1.2The event runs in five phases. Applications open on May 27, 2026 and close on June 10, 2026. Up to 40 teams are selected during the week of June 11–17, 2026. Selected teams enter a three-week remote build period from June 18 to July 8, 2026. Finalists are announced on July 22, 2026, and winners are announced on August 15, 2026.
1.3The event is publicly launched at an announcement event hosted separately by IDB Invest in Barbados. That launch event is invitation-only and is not part of the Buildathon itself. Applicants and selected teams are not expected, invited, or required to attend, and participation in the Buildathon does not create any right to attend.
1.4Specific dates, deliverables, check-in schedules, and submission formats for each phase will be communicated in writing to selected teams. The organiser may adjust phase dates by up to seven days on reasonable notice.
1.5Any material change to the event structure, including cancellation, postponement, or a change to the phase dates beyond the adjustment permitted in clause 1.4, will be communicated to all applicants and selected teams in writing and by an update to futurecaribbean.com.
02 Eligibility
2.1Applicants must be at least 18 years of age at the time of application. Each team member must individually satisfy this age requirement.
2.2Applicants may participate as individuals or as teams of up to five people. Teams may be based anywhere in the world, subject to clauses 2.3 and 2.4.
2.3Participation is not open to persons resident in, ordinarily resident in, or acting on behalf of any jurisdiction subject to comprehensive sanctions under the laws of Barbados, the United States, the United Kingdom, or the European Union.
2.4Employees, officers, directors, and immediate family members of the organiser, and employees of backers who are directly involved in judging or selection, are not eligible to apply. Other employees of backers may apply subject to the conflict of interest rules in clause 6.
2.5Each applicant is responsible for ensuring their participation is lawful in their home jurisdiction and that they have obtained any consents required from employers, academic institutions, or co-founders before applying.
03 Applications and Selection
3.1Applications must be submitted through the form at futurecaribbean.com before 23:59 Atlantic Standard Time on June 10, 2026. Late applications will not be considered.
3.2Applicants must provide accurate, complete, and current information, including at least one verifiable prior build artifact for each team: a public code repository, a product demo, a deployed URL, or equivalent evidence of prior work.
3.3The organiser may, at its discretion, request additional information, require a short video introduction, or conduct a live screening call before making selection decisions.
3.4Selection is at the sole discretion of the organiser, taking into account criteria published on futurecaribbean.com. The organiser’s selection decisions are final. The organiser is under no obligation to provide individual feedback on unsuccessful applications.
3.5Selected teams must confirm acceptance of their place in writing within 72 hours of notification. A team that fails to confirm within this period forfeits its place, which may be offered to a waitlisted team.
3.6The organiser reserves the right to adjust team composition rules, add a waitlist, or reallocate forfeited places, provided that such adjustments are applied consistently.
04 Team Composition and Changes
4.1The team as described in the application is the team assessed for selection. Material changes to team composition after selection require written approval from the organiser.
4.2A team may request the addition or removal of a member during the build period, provided that the change does not, in the organiser’s view, alter the essential nature of the team or the project. Approvals will not be unreasonably withheld.
4.3If a team is reduced below two members during the build period, the organiser may, at its discretion, allow the remaining member to continue, merge the remaining work with another team, or withdraw the team from the event.
05 Intellectual Property
Teams own their work
5.1Each team retains full ownership of all intellectual property, work product, code, designs, data models, trademarks, and any other rights created by team members before, during, or after the event. The organiser claims no ownership, no assignment, no licence, no option, no right of first refusal, and no equity in any work product or resulting company. Backers and partners of the event claim no such rights by virtue of the event itself.
5.2Pre-existing intellectual property brought into the event by any team member remains the property of that team member or their employer, as applicable. Teams are responsible for confirming they have the right to use any pre-existing materials they choose to bring into the event.
5.3The organiser will not require any team to disclose proprietary source code, trade secrets, or sensitive technical details beyond what is necessary for judging. Teams may designate specific materials as confidential and the organiser will handle such materials consistently with the confidentiality provisions in clause 9.
Limited permission for promotion
5.4Teams grant the organiser a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, non-transferable permission to use the team’s name, team member names and likenesses, team logo if any, project name, and a short public-facing description of the project, solely for the purpose of promoting the event and reporting on its outcomes. This permission is limited to promotional use of publicly shared information. It does not extend to source code, architecture, proprietary methods, or any material designated by the team as confidential.
5.5Teams may revoke the permission in clause 5.4 at any time by written notice. Revocation does not affect prior uses made in good faith, but the organiser will not make new uses of the material after the date of revocation.
Mentors, judges, and backers
5.6Mentors, judges, backers, and their affiliates who interact with teams during the event agree that they acquire no rights of any kind in team work product by virtue of that interaction. Any commercial relationship between a mentor, judge, backer, or their affiliate and a team must be established under separate, arm’s-length agreement and must not be based on confidential information disclosed during the event.
5.7Judges and mentors are bound by a published restriction on pursuing commercial engagements with teams they evaluated, as set out in clause 6.
06 Judging, Conflicts of Interest, and Recusal
6.1Judging is carried out against a published rubric applied consistently across all tracks. Judges undergo a pre-event calibration process.
6.2Every judge is required to disclose in writing any actual or potential conflict of interest before reviewing applications or submissions. A conflict includes any investment, prior employment, advisory relationship, or personal relationship that could reasonably call the judge’s impartiality into question.
6.3A judge with a disclosed conflict will recuse from evaluating the affected team. The independent chair of the judging panel will reassign evaluation to an unconflicted judge.
6.4Judges undertake not to enter into a commercial relationship with a team they evaluated for a period of six months following the announcement of winners. For the avoidance of doubt, a commercial relationship includes employment offers, investment, advisory agreements, and joint ventures.
6.5Final scoring is subject to two-person verification. A 48-hour freeze period applies between final scoring and announcement, during which no changes to scores may be made except to correct arithmetic errors, with both verifiers signing off.
6.6The organiser’s decisions on selection, judging, and award of prizes are final. There is no right of appeal save where a manifest administrative error has occurred.
07 Prizes and Compute Allocation
Structure of the prize pool
7.1The total prize pool for the Buildathon is up to USD 120,000, comprising two components described below. The specific allocation of the winner pool across tracks, including any cash and in-kind elements, will be published before the close of applications.
Compute allocation for all selected teams
7.2USD 50,000 of the prize pool is allocated as compute credits provided to the 40 selected teams. Each selected team receives an equal share of this allocation, equivalent to USD 1,250 of compute credits per team. Compute credits are provided in kind by a compute partner designated by the organiser and are subject to the partner’s standard terms of service.
7.3Compute credits are allocated to a team on confirmation of its selection under clause 3.5 and are intended for use during the build period. Unused credits do not carry over, are not refundable, and are not exchangeable for cash. Credits are personal to the selected team and may not be transferred, sold, or assigned.
7.4A team that is disqualified, withdraws, or forfeits its place forfeits any unused portion of its compute allocation. The organiser may reallocate the forfeited portion to a waitlisted team or to another team at its discretion.
7.5The compute partner is responsible for the technical provision of credits, including platform availability and service levels. The organiser’s responsibility in respect of compute is limited to arranging allocation to selected teams in good faith.
Winner pool
7.6The remaining balance of the prize pool, up to USD 70,000, is awarded to winning teams selected through the judging process described in clause 6. The composition of the winner pool, including any cash and in-kind elements, will be published before the close of applications.
7.7Prize eligibility is conditional on compliance with these Terms throughout the event. The organiser may withhold or revoke a prize where a winner is found to be in material breach, including breach of the eligibility, sanctions, or conduct provisions.
7.8Cash elements of the winner pool will be disbursed to verified winners after completion of identity and sanctions screening described in clause 8. Disbursement may take up to 60 days following verification. Winners bear their own banking, transfer, and conversion costs unless the organiser specifies otherwise in writing.
7.9A portion of any cash prize may be held back and released on delivery of agreed post-event milestones. Any such milestone arrangement will be set out in a written award letter provided to the relevant winner, and will not apply unless accepted in writing by the winner.
Tax, in-kind, and transferability
7.10Each recipient of a prize or compute allocation is solely responsible for all taxes, duties, and reporting obligations arising in their jurisdiction. The organiser may deduct or withhold amounts where required by Barbados law or by the law of a backer’s jurisdiction where the backer is the direct source of a component.
7.11In-kind components of any prize are provided subject to the terms of the relevant backer or service provider, which will be disclosed to the recipient before acceptance. The organiser’s responsibility in respect of in-kind components is limited to arranging their delivery by the relevant provider in good faith.
7.12Prizes and compute credits are personal to the recipient team and may not be assigned or transferred without the written consent of the organiser.
08 Identity Verification, Sanctions, and Anti-Bribery
8.1Before any cash element of the winner pool is disbursed, each winner will undergo identity verification, including government-issued identification, proof of address, and verified contact details. The organiser may also verify the existence and composition of the winning team. Basic verification applies to all selected teams before compute credits are released to them.
8.2Each winner, and each selected team for the purposes of compute allocation, will be screened against applicable sanctions lists, including those maintained by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the United States Department of the Treasury, HM Treasury of the United Kingdom, and the European Union. A team or individual who is a match, or whose participation would expose the organiser or a backer to sanctions risk, is ineligible to receive the relevant benefit.
8.3The organiser, backers, judges, and mentors do not offer, accept, or facilitate any payment, gift, or favour intended to influence selection, judging, or the award of prizes. Any attempt to do so is grounds for immediate disqualification.
8.4Where any applicant, team member, or invitee is a government official or the close relative of a government official, the organiser may apply additional review in line with its anti-bribery policy and the requirements of IDB Invest and other backers.
09 Confidentiality
9.1Information shared by a team with the organiser, judges, or mentors as part of the evaluation and build process, and designated by the team as confidential, will be treated as confidential and used only for the purposes of the event.
9.2Confidential information does not include information that is, or becomes, publicly known through no fault of the receiving party; that was lawfully known to the receiving party before the event; that is independently developed without reference to team confidential information; or that is required to be disclosed by law or regulation.
9.3Judges, mentors, backers, and the organiser’s personnel will be required to accept equivalent confidentiality terms in writing before receiving team submissions.
9.4Confidentiality obligations under this clause continue for two years following the announcement of winners.
10 Code of Conduct
10.1Participants are expected to behave professionally and respectfully toward other participants, organisers, judges, mentors, backers, and members of the public they encounter in connection with the event. This standard applies to all remote interactions, including video calls, chat, email, social media, and any other channel used in connection with the Buildathon.
10.2Harassment, discrimination, bullying, and any other conduct that creates an unsafe or hostile environment will not be tolerated. Prohibited conduct includes, without limitation, conduct based on race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, disability, age, or national origin.
10.3The organiser operates a published code of conduct. Reports may be made to the reporting contact named on futurecaribbean.com. The reporting contact is not a member of the judging panel and operates independently of selection decisions.
10.4Substantiated breach of the code of conduct may result in suspension from the event, disqualification, forfeiture of compute credits, revocation of a prize already awarded, and, where appropriate, referral to law enforcement. Determinations under this clause will be made by the organiser acting reasonably and consistently with the published code of conduct.
11 Data Protection and Privacy
11.1The organiser processes personal data in accordance with the Barbados Data Protection Act 2019, and, where applicable to individual participants, the European Union General Data Protection Regulation and the California Consumer Privacy Act.
11.2Personal data is collected to administer applications, communicate with applicants, operate the event, allocate compute credits, award and disburse prizes, and meet legal obligations. Full details are set out in the Privacy Policy published on futurecaribbean.com.
11.3Applicants have rights in relation to their personal data, including rights of access, rectification, erasure, and objection. Requests should be directed to the contact address set out in the Privacy Policy.
11.4The organiser uses third-party services to collect and store application data, to allocate compute credits, and to communicate with participants. Data processing arrangements with these providers are in place.
12 Force Majeure
12.1The organiser is not liable for any delay, modification, or cancellation of the event, or any phase of the event, caused by circumstances beyond its reasonable control, including public health events, war, civil unrest, sanctions, government action, or failure of third-party infrastructure, including the compute partner.
12.2Where force majeure affects the event, the organiser will use reasonable efforts to reschedule, adapt the affected phase, or otherwise preserve the substance of the event, and will communicate changes to applicants and selected teams in writing.
12.3If the event is cancelled in whole or in part due to force majeure, the organiser’s liability is limited to a refund of any fees directly paid by participants to the organiser. No fees are payable to apply or participate, and accordingly no such refund will ordinarily be due.
13 Limitation of Liability
13.1Nothing in these Terms limits any liability that cannot be limited under Barbados law, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence and liability for fraud.
13.2Subject to clause 13.1, the organiser’s total aggregate liability arising out of or in connection with the event and these Terms is limited to USD 1,000 per participant.
13.3The organiser is not liable for indirect, consequential, incidental, or special loss, including loss of profit, loss of business opportunity, loss of goodwill, or loss of data, however arising. The organiser is not liable for any act, omission, outage, data loss, or other failure of the compute partner.
13.4Participants acknowledge that the Buildathon is a competitive event and that the organiser makes no guarantee of investment, commercial outcome, partnership, or continued engagement following the event.
14 Disqualification
14.1The organiser may disqualify an applicant, a team member, or a team at any time, with or without notice, where the organiser reasonably determines that: (a) information provided in the application is materially false or misleading; (b) the team or a team member is ineligible under clause 2; (c) the team or a team member has materially breached the code of conduct; (d) the team or a team member has infringed the intellectual property rights of a third party in work submitted to the event; (e) the team or a team member has misused compute credits in a manner inconsistent with the compute partner’s terms of service; (f) the team or a team member has engaged in conduct that brings the event, the organiser, or a backer into disrepute.
14.2Disqualification may include forfeiture of any unused compute credits, revocation of any prize, whether announced, awarded, or disbursed, and the organiser may seek the return of prize money or in-kind components already provided.
15 Publicity and Media
15.1The organiser may record and stream portions of remote event activities, including demo presentations and the winners announcement. By participating, team members consent to reasonable use of such recordings for event reporting and promotion, subject to the limits in clauses 5.4 and 5.5 concerning project-level materials.
15.2A participant may request that a specific recording of them not be used. Such requests will be honoured where the material can reasonably be identified and removed from materials not yet published.
15.3Press and media enquiries should be directed to the organiser. Participants may speak to media about their own participation but are asked to refer questions about the event structure, judging, or other teams to the organiser.
16 Changes to These Terms
16.1The organiser may make non-material changes to these Terms at any time by updating the version published on futurecaribbean.com. Material changes will be communicated in writing to applicants and selected teams.
16.2Continued participation in the event following notice of a material change constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms. A participant who does not accept a material change may withdraw from the event within 14 days of notice.
17 Governing Law and Disputes
17.1These Terms are governed by the laws of Barbados, without regard to conflict of laws principles.
17.2The parties agree to attempt in good faith to resolve any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms through direct discussion for a period of 30 days before commencing any formal proceeding.
17.3Unresolved disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Barbados. The organiser and participants waive any objection to the venue or forum of such proceedings.
17.4If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full force and effect.
18 Miscellaneous
18.1These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any award letter issued to a winner, form the entire agreement between the organiser and each participant in relation to the event, and supersede any prior understanding or representation.
18.2No waiver of any provision of these Terms will be effective unless made in writing by the organiser. A waiver on one occasion does not constitute a waiver on any other occasion.
18.3Notices to the organiser should be sent to the contact address published on futurecaribbean.com. Notices to participants will be sent to the email address provided at application.
18.4Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, joint venture, employment relationship, or agency between the organiser and any participant.
Back to Home