The SIGIR 2025 Live-RAG challenge (“Challenge”) invites research teams from academia and industry from around the globe (“Challenge Team(s)”, “Challenge Team Member(s)”, “you” and “your”) to advance their Retrieval Augmented Generation (“RAG") research and compare the performance of their systems with peers, on a fixed corpus (derived from the publicly available FineWeb) and a fixed open-source Large Language Model (“LLM”), Falcon3-10B-Instruct.
As part of the Challenge, the Challenge Teams will be asked to submit an application (“Application”) for the Challenge, as further detailed in the “Application” section below. Further to a successful Application, each Challenge Team will be required to produce certain documentation and a description of their RAG system (together with all technology, software and other Intellectual Property Rights, the “Solution”), as detailed online at https://liverag.tii.ae (the "Challenge Page”).
The Challenge is organized by the Technology Innovation Institute – Sole Proprietorship LLC, a limited liability company registered pursuant to the laws of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and having its registered office at Accelerator 2 Building, on Plot M12, Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates (“Organizer”, “we” or “us”), being the dedicated technology program management pillar of the Advanced Technology Research Council, the overarching advanced technology research body in Abu Dhabi.
You should carefully read these terms and conditions, including all annexes and documents referred to herein (together, the “Terms and Conditions”) before registering and participating in the Challenge. If you do not agree or do not intend to comply with any of the Terms and Conditions you should not proceed to registration and participation in the Challenge.
Please note that by applying to and participating in the Challenge you agree to be legally bound by:
You agree that all of the above form a binding legal agreement between you and us as the organizer of the Challenge. This agreement will be formally recorded and stored through your submission of the Application, which confirms that you have read, understood, and agreed to the Terms and Conditions. By agreeing to the Terms and Conditions, you represent that you will abide by all rules and regulations of the Challenge. A misrepresentation or non-compliance at any stage may result in your disqualification at any stage of the Challenge. This agreement is between you and us only, and no other party may benefit from this agreement or enforce this agreement against the Organizer.
Please note that a copy of the Terms and Conditions is available on the Challenge Page. The Challenge Page also provides additional context on the Challenge Calendar and various deadlines for submissions of Applications and Solutions that are mentioned in the rest of this document (for example, the Live Challenge Day). The Organizer reserves the right to make amendments to the Terms and Conditions at any time, at its own discretion, without any consent from you or any other person. Publication of the amended Terms and Conditions on the Challenge Page will constitute a notice of the amendment and will be binding on you. Where practically possible, the Organizer will notify you of the amendments.
Each Challenge Team is responsible for the acts or omissions of each of its Challenge Team Members during its participation in the Challenge, including compliance with these Terms and Conditions. Each Challenge Team must comply with all laws and regulations that apply to their participation in the Challenge, including laws relating to anti-bribery and anti-corruption.
Except for the costs of the Credits, all costs of competing in the Challenge are the responsibility of the competing Challenge Team and the Organizer shall not be liable for any costs incurred by the Challenge Team during its participation in the Challenge.
Registration in the Challenge is non-transferable and the Challenge Team shall not assign or transfer such registration or any of its rights under these Terms and Conditions without the Organizer’s prior written approval. The Challenge Team may not delegate or sub-contract its participation in the Challenge and the Organizer will immediately disqualify each Challenge Team breaching these Terms and Conditions.
To register for the Challenge, you will be asked to complete the Application in accordance with the requirements provided on the Challenge Page. Each Application will be verified for completeness and eligibility. Any failure to provide complete and accurate information in the Application prior to the indicated submission deadline may result in the Application not being considered and/or the disqualification of the Challenge Team.
Further to a successful Application, the Challenge Teams will create their proposed Solution in accordance with the guidelines available on the Challenge Page. It will be the responsibility of the Challenge Teams to upload and render their Solution via Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) in a way and within a timeframe that may be communicated to the Challenge Teams by the Organizer. The Challenge Teams, and each Challenge Team Member, will be solely responsible for complying with any AWS rules or other applicable rules and regulations, including but not limited to, in respect of data exports and export controls. The Organizer shall not be liable for any non-compliance with such rules and regulations by a Challenge Team, and the relevant Challenge Team shall indemnify and hold the Organizer harmless against any consequences arising from such non-compliance.
Please be aware that the provision of personal data of each Challenge Team Member is subject to the Privacy Policy. Each Challenge Team must provide accurate and full details with respect to each Challenge Team Member indicated in the Application.
Only teams of one (1) to five (5) individual members are eligible to participate in the Challenge. Each Challenge Team Member may participate in the Challenge only by joining one (1) Challenge Team. Multiple registrations are not allowed.
The following individuals are not eligible to register and participate as Challenge Team Members in the Challenge:
By registering for the Challenge, all Challenge Team Members represent and warrant that they are eligible to participate in the Challenge. Any Challenge Team may be required to provide proof of eligibility in the form and at such time as requested by the Organizer. If any one Challenge Team Member is ineligible, the Organizer may decide, in its sole discretion, that the entire Challenge Team is ineligible for the Challenge.
The Challenge Teams may not, at any time throughout the Challenge, add or remove Challenge Team Members or merge with another Challenge Team, unless otherwise agreed in advance in writing with the Organizer. The Challenge Teams must at all times procure that all of the Challenge Team Members meet the eligibility requirements.
The participating Challenge Teams will be selected by the Organizer on the basis of the submitted Applications at the Organizer’s sole discretion. The Organizer may consider various factors such as quality and advancement of your RAG system, Challenge Team Members’ qualifications and track record, academic affiliations, diversity, etc. The Organizer reserves the right not to accept any Application.
Each Challenge Team may withdraw from the Challenge voluntarily at any time before accepting the Credits. Each Challenge Team must immediately notify the Organizer if, after being selected to participate in the Challenge, it becomes aware that it is or will become ineligible for the Challenge or is otherwise in breach of the Terms and Conditions. The Organizer may at its own discretion disqualify from the Challenge any Challenge Team that is or will become ineligible or is in breach of the Terms and Conditions.
The Organizer further reserves the right to disqualify any Challenge Team which tampers with the registration for the Challenge, the Challenge process, any other part of the Challenge, the Challenge Page or violates the Terms and Conditions. All Challenge Team Members must adhere to reasonably expected ethical standards, including compliance with all applicable laws and generally accepted social practices, and refrain from activities such as code sharing, plagiarism, and other behavior that could compromise the integrity of the Challenge.
Any attempt by you to deliberately damage any data or hardware, introduce malware, apply Credits outside of the Challenge tasks, or undermine the legitimate operation of the Challenge is a violation of these Terms and Conditions, and the Organizer reserves the right to disqualify any Challenge Team making such attempt and to fully seek damages from you under applicable law.
Each participating Challenge Team will be provided with up to US$1500 AWS credits to be used during the Challenge task (“Credits”), which will be delivered to the selected Challenge Teams in the form of three (3) vouchers or as otherwise indicated by the Organizer. The Credits can only be utilized for the Challenge’s tasks and not for anything else, and the Challenge Teams must use the Credits in a manner that complies with any rules that may be communicated to them from time to time by, or on behalf of, the Organizer.
Each Challenge Team that is disqualified, or otherwise ceases to be part of the Challenge, before the Live Challenge Day will lose their Credits, as well as all access to the Challenge’s resources (for example, Pinecone, OpenSearch and DataMorganaTM). Otherwise, all Credits and access to the Challenge resources will expire after the Live Challenge Day.
In addition, each participating Challenge Teams must give the Organizer full access to its codebase and related artifacts after the Live Challenge Day for verification purposes by such date as may be communicated to the Challenge Teams by the Organizer from time to time.
All Applications and Solution submissions by a Challenge Team (the “Submission”):
The Organizer reserves the right in its sole discretion to disqualify you from the Challenge if in the Organizer’s sole discretion your Submission does not comply with these requirements or if you do not comply with any requirement of these Terms and Conditions.
Subject to the other provisions of these Terms and Conditions, the prize awards for the Challenge (“Prize(s)”) are as follows:
The Prizes will be awarded in accordance with the evaluation process indicated on the Challenge website and criteria set by the Organizer (detailed in the Challenge Details section of the Challenge Page]), and the winning Challenge Teams will be notified accordingly. If a Challenge Team cannot be reached, fails to respond as instructed, or the communication is returned as “undeliverable”, the Organizer may, after taking reasonable efforts to reach the winner, disqualify the Challenge Team and, if practicable, select an alternative winner at its sole discretion.
The Organizer may at any time amend or cancel the Prizes. The Organizer reserves the right to withhold any payments of the Prizes in the event a Challenge Team and/or Challenge Team Member is in breach of the Terms and Conditions. By participating in the Challenge, you acknowledge that the award of the Prizes is in the Organizer’s sole discretion, and you do not have a claim for the Prize against the Organizer.
You agree that you must have an open bank account that allows you to receive the Prize. If you are awarded a Prize, you agree that you will be required to submit such additional documents and information as may be necessary for the Organizer to effect the payment to you through a bank transfer from Israel. Such documents may include a letter issued by your bank confirming the official bank details. This letter must be on the bank’s letterhead and include your account number, IBAN (if applicable), and SWIFT/BIC code, to ensure accurate payment transfer. You must ensure that your bank account can accept the currency of the Prize and an international bank transfer from Israel. You acknowledge that failure to provide the requested documents and information will result in the forfeiture of the Prize by the Organizer.
If a Challenge Team wins a Prize, it will be the Challenge Team Members’ sole responsibility to distribute the Prize among themselves. The Organizer will have no liability for the Prize after it has been transferred to the Challenge Team. Each Challenge Team Member is personally liable for the payment of all taxes in connection with receiving the Prize.
For the purposes of this “General Terms” section, the below defined terms will have the following meaning:
Challenge Team Background IP: means any Intellectual Property Rights that are owned in-licensed, conceived or developed by any Challenge Team and that were in existence prior to the commencement of the Challenge.
Challenge Team Foreground IP: means any Intellectual Property Rights created or arising pursuant to the Challenge from Challenge Team and/or any third parties acting on its behalf.
Intellectual Property Rights: means all patents, rights to inventions, copyright and related rights, rights in designs, database rights, source code, rights to use, and protect the confidentiality of, confidential information (including know-how and trade secrets) and all other intellectual property rights, in each case whether registered or unregistered and including all applications and rights to apply for and be granted, renewals or extensions of, and rights to claim priority from, such rights and all similar or equivalent rights or forms of protection which subsist or will subsist now or in the future in any part of the world, but for the avoidance of doubt, excluding any trade marks, business names and domain names, goodwill and/or the right to sue for passing off or unfair competition.
Team Technology: means the Solution submitted by Challenge Team and used to compete in the Challenge, as well as all technology, software and other Intellectual Property Rights that form part of such Solution (including the Challenge Team Background IP, the Challenge Team Foreground IP and the Third-Party IP).
Third Party IP: means all third-party technologies, methods, resources and Intellectual Property Rights that form part of the Team Technology, or that are required to give effect to the Team Technology, but not including the Challenge Team Background IP or the Challenge Team Foreground IP.
Organizer Background IP: means Intellectual Property Rights owned or licensed by the Organizer and/or any of its Affiliates or third parties acting on its behalf that are provided to the Challenge Team for the purposes of the participation in the Challenge (including the Falcon3-10B-Instruct LLM, Pinecone Dense index, DataMorganaTM) as well as any measurements, scoring, statistical tools and data collected or developed).
The Challenge Team acknowledges that the Organizer Background IP is owned by, and remains the property of, the Organizer, its Affiliates or relevant third parties (as applicable), and the Challenge Team shall have no rights in or to such Organizer Background IP, other than as expressly set out below. The Organizer grants the Challenge Team a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free, revocable license to use the Organizer Background IP exclusively for the purpose of competing in the Challenge for the duration of the Challenge.
The Challenge Team shall provide any reasonably requested information to the Organizer about their Solution.
The Organizer acknowledges that the Challenge Team Background IP is owned by the Challenge Team and/or the relevant third parties (as applicable), and the Organizer shall be granted a non-exclusive, perpetual, royalty-free, worldwide, sub-licensable license to use the disclosed Challenge Team Background IP to perform the work under this Challenge by the program committee members involved with the Challenge.
Each Challenge Team agrees that by participating in the Challenge and acceptance of these Terms and Conditions it grants to the Organizer and its Affiliates a fully-paid up, non-exclusive, sub-licensable, perpetual, royalty-free, worldwide license to use, commercialize, copy, modify and exploit the Intellectual Property Rights in and to the Team Technology for any and all usage purposes.
The Challenge Team and the Organizer shall do all such things and execute all such documents necessary in order to give effect to these Terms and Conditions with respect to the Intellectual Property Rights, without undue delay, and in any event within two (2) months of the Organizer notifying the Challenge Team that it is the winner of the Challenge.
The Challenge Team will not use the Organizer’s logos, brand names, slogans or other trademarks, or post or otherwise use any of the Organizer’s confidential or proprietary information without its prior written permission.
If any claim is made (or is likely to be made) against the Organizer and/or its Affiliates, that the Solution and/or the Team Technology infringe any third party’s intellectual property rights, Challenge Team will use all reasonable efforts, at the Organizer’s sole option and at the Challenge Team’s sole expense, to: (i) procure for the Organizer and/or its Affiliates (as applicable) the right to continue to use the Solution (or any part thereof) in accordance with the Terms and Conditions; or (ii) modify or replace the relevant part of the Solution so that it ceases to be infringing, provided that if the Challenge Team modifies or replaces the Solution, the modified or replacement Solution must comply with the warranties contained in these Terms and Conditions and the Organizer shall have the same rights in respect thereof.
Challenge Team shall not enter into any agreements that may conflict with these Terms and Conditions, or that may otherwise either restrict or affect the Organizer's ability to enforce its rights under these Terms and Conditions, including in relation to its use of the Team Technology.
The Organizer will only process Challenge Team Member’s personal information as set out in the Privacy Policy. The Organizer shall comply with its applicable obligations under data protection and privacy laws in relation to its collection and use of the Challenge Team Member’s personal information.
By registering for the Challenge, you confirmed that you have read, acknowledged and agreed to the Privacy Policy.
Both during and after the Challenge, a Challenge Team:
To the extent allowed by applicable law, the Organizer may use the names and pictures of the Challenge Teams and the Challenge Team Members for publication purposes related to the Challenge at any time during and after the Challenge.
All information identified as proprietary, including the Solution and relevant Intellectual Property Rights, and submitted by Challenge Teams to the Organizer, or by the Organizer to a Challenge Team, relating to the Challenge will remain strictly confidential, unless:
The Challenge Team and the Organizer agree to hold information received from each other in connection with the Challenge in strict confidence and that each will not disclose, copy, reproduce or distribute any of it without the consent of the provider of the information, during the Challenge and for a period of two (2) years after the Challenge. The Challenge Team and the Organizer retain all rights in their respective confidential information. However, the Organizer may disclose the Team Technology in accordance with theu Intellectual Property Rights section.
The Organizer reserves the right to make changes to the Terms and Conditions at any time and will notify the Challenge Teams of any changes without undue delay in writing by email or otherwise (for example, by posting a notice on the Challenge Page).
If for any reason the Challenge cannot be run as planned due to reasons beyond the Organizer’s reasonable control, including but not limited to infection by a computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of the Challenge, the Organizer reserves the right at its sole discretion to cancel, extend, terminate, modify, postpone, or suspend the Challenge.
The Organizer may assign, delegate or transfer any of its rights or interests or duties under the Terms and Conditions at its absolute and sole discretion.
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the Organizer, its agents or distributors will not, in any circumstance, be responsible or liable to compensate a Challenge Team for any loss or damage incurred by a Challenge Team, as a result of such Challenge Team taking part in the Challenge, except where such loss or damage is directly caused by the gross negligence of the Organizer, its agents or distributors or that of its employees. Where the Organizer is liable to compensate a Challenge Team for such loss or damage then, insofar as is permitted by law, such loss or damage shall be limited to an aggregate total across all events giving rise to such liability of US$5,000.
The failure to exercise or delay in exercising a right or remedy provided to the Organizer by these Terms and Conditions or by applicable law does not impair or constitute a waiver of the right or remedy or an impairment of or a waiver of other rights or remedies. No single or partial exercise of a right or remedy by the Organizer provided by these Terms and Conditions or by law prevents further exercise of the right or remedy or the exercise of another right or remedy by the Organizer.
The Organizer shall not be liable for any failure in completion of the Challenge or delay in the performance of the Challenge caused by an event beyond its control. The Organizer accepts no liability whatsoever for the usage or outputs of the resources and tools in the course of the Challenge, including for any additional costs that may be linked to the use of cloud services, such as AWS or Pinecone, beyond the allocated Credits provided as part of the Challenge.
These Terms and Conditions, the Challenge and any dispute arising under or in connection with the Challenge or these Terms and Conditions are governed and construed in accordance with English law. Any and all disputes that cannot be resolved between the Organizer and a Challenge Team by way of negotiation within thirty (30) calendar days of the dispute notice, shall be subject to final resolution by a competent court of England.
The invalidity or unenforceability of any provision of these Terms and Conditions will not affect the validity or enforceability of any other provision. If any provision is determined to be invalid or otherwise unenforceable or illegal, these Terms and Conditions will otherwise remain in effect and will be construed in accordance with their terms as if the invalid or illegal provision were not included.
The Terms and Conditions shall apply to you from the submission of your Application and, unless terminated earlier, shall end upon the SIGIR 2025 LiveRAG Workshop, save in respect of the terms which are of an ongoing nature. Upon the termination or expiry of these Terms and Conditions, the provisions relating to confidentiality, Intellectual Property Rights, privacy, applicable law, dispute resolution, and any other provisions which by their nature are intended to survive, shall remain in full force and effect.
If any Challenge Team has withdrawn or was disqualified from the Challenge, the Organizer will no longer be bound by the Terms and Conditions as relates to such Challenge Team and each party will return the other party’s confidential information, if so requested by the other, save as otherwise set out in the Terms and Conditions.
The official language of the Challenge shall be English. Any communication and notices between the Organizer and each Challenge Team shall be in writing and may be by electronic mail.
The Organizer and Challenge Team shall, at the request and cost of the other, use all reasonable endeavors to promptly do or procure the doing of all such further acts, and execute and deliver or procure the valid execution and delivery of all such documents, as may from time to time be necessary to give full effect to the Terms and Conditions and to secure the full benefit of the rights, remedies and benefits conferred on it by the Terms and Conditions.
Any waiver of a breach of any term of the Terms and Conditions shall not operate as a waiver of breach of any other term or any subsequent breach of that term.
The Organizer may at any time, without notice to the Challenge Team, set off any liability of Challenge Team to it against any liability it has to the Challenge Team, whether either liability is present or future, liquidated or unliquidated, and whether or not either liability arises under the Terms and Conditions. Any exercise by the Organizer of its rights under this provision shall not limit or affect any other rights or remedies available to it otherwise.
