Who is Eligible To Enter

• You must be 18 years of age or older to enter.
• The following individuals are not eligible to enter:
  • Current employees and interns of Arc
  • Current employees and interns of any sponsor of the Challenge
  • Former Arc employees who left the Institute after April, 2025
  • Students in Arc Core Investigator labs
  • Students or employees in Arc Innovation Investigator labs
  • Students being advised informally or formally by Arc employees at any time during or after February 2025
  • Arc service providers, consultants, vendors or independent contractors or their employees
  • Individuals in Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria, the Crimea, or Luhansk or Donetsk region of Ukraine
  • Individuals named on any U.S. government restricted party list
  • Individuals subject to restrictions that would prohibit their participation under U.S. or other applicable laws

Teams

• You participate in the Challenge via a team. Each team may have from one to eight individual members.
• Each member of a team must meet all eligibility requirements.
• An individual may only participate on one team.

Participating As An Employee

• You must specify whether you are participating in the Challenge in your personal capacity or as an employee of an organization you work for.
• Teams with member(s) participating as employees must:
  • include employees of only one organization, and
  • include only team members who are participating in their role as employees of that organization - in other words, a single team cannot include some members participating as employees and other members participating in their personal capacities.
• If you participate in your employee role, by registering for the Challenge, you confirm that you have the power and authority to act for your employer in the Challenge, and that your employer has authorized you to participate in the Challenge on your employer’s behalf.
• In cases where you are participating as an employee, the word “you” in these rules also refers to your employer.
• You agree to notify us immediately if your employer revokes its authorization for you to participate in the Challenge, in which case we may disqualify you, or your team as a whole, at our sole discretion, at any time during or after the Challenge.
• We reserve the right to verify a participant’s authority to act on an employer’s behalf directly with the employer.

Your Responsibility to Others

• By registering for the Challenge, you are confirming that your participation in the Challenge does not and will not violate any obligations you have to anyone else, including any employer or any entity you consult for, or any school where you are a student.
• You may not use any property, know-how, code, information, or data in the Challenge that you do not have rights to use for that purpose. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the [Arc Virtual Cell Model License][link], use of the [Arc Virtual Cell Model] in the Challenge is deemed a Non-Commercial Purpose, as defined in the license.
• You may not tamper with our administration of the Challenge; submit “spam” entries, such as entries whose primary intention is to advance causes unrelated to the spirit of the Challenge; collude with other teams to share models, results or strategies in a manner that undermines the integrity of the Challenge; attempt to reverse engineer, tamper with or otherwise gain unauthorized access to another team’s work; or engage in any conduct that is detrimental or unfair to us or any other team, as we may determine in our sole discretion.

Fees and Costs

• There is no entrance fee for this challenge. A contribution to Arc will not improve your chance of winning. You are responsible for all costs associated with participating in the Challenge.

Registering

• To register for the Challenge you must:
  • Confirm that you are eligible to enter
  • Agree that you will follow all of these rules
  • Agree to the Terms of Use
  • We will use the personal data of individuals participating in the Challenge for the purposes set forth in our Privacy Notice. [link] We will also ask you to agree to a publicity release, which is optional unless you want to make leaderboard entries.
• here is no deadline for registration other than that you must be registered before submitting any leaderboard entry or final entry.

Submitting Leaderboard Entries

• Before October 27, 2025, you can submit entries predicting the transcriptomic consequences of a set of 50 genetic perturbations [link] for ranking on a public leaderboard [link] (“leaderboard entries”), where those predictions are generated by a machine learning model you trained and/or fine-tuned.
• Submitting leaderboard entries during the course of the Challenge is optional, but encouraged.
• We will score leaderboard entries based on the same criteria we will use to score final entries, as described below, and will post the score and your team’s name on the leaderboard, which will be publicly available on the Challenge website.
• You may submit leaderboard entries a maximum of once per day, with new days commencing at midnight PDT or PST (as applicable). Any leaderboard entries submitted during a day in which your team has already submitted an entry will not be accepted.
• You cannot in any way rely on any leaderboard rankings as a predictor of final Challenge results.
• There will be no changes to the initial leaderboard after October 27, 2025.

Submitting Final Entries

• Each team must make a final entry to be considered for prizes.
• To submit a final entry, you must submit predictions of the transcriptomic consequences of a set of 100 genetic perturbations that will be released on October 27, 2025, where those predictions are generated by a machine learning model you trained and/or fine-tuned. You must upload the final entry to the Challenge website [link] by 11:59pm PT on November 3, 2025.
• You may submit final entries a maximum of once per day, with new days commencing at midnight PDT or PST (as applicable). Any final entries submitted during a day in which your team has already submitted an entry will not be accepted.
• A final leaderboard, based only on final entries, will be released when the winners are announced.

Finalists, Winners, and Prizes

• Leaderboard entries are not eligible for prizes. Only final entries will be eligible for prizes.
• Only the last final entry submitted for each team will be eligible for prizes.
• We will score each final entry based on the approach set forth here [link]. A group of finalists will be publicly identified from those entries.
• If your team is identified as a finalist, in order to be eligible for a prize, you (for team entries, all members of the team) must:
  • Reconfirm your eligibility to participate in the Challenge.
  • Reconfirm that you followed these rules, including the Terms of Use.
  • Provide tax reporting, withholding and payment information.
  • Provide any other information we may request to verify to our sole satisfaction that you complied with these rules and the Terms of Use and that our administration of your participation and entry in the Challenge complies with applicable laws.
• A subset of finalists will receive prizes, as follows:
  • The team with the entry receiving the highest score based on the approach set forth here [link], after validation of eligibility, will receive $100,000.
  • The team with the entry receiving the second highest score based on the approach set forth here [link], after validation of eligibility, will receive $50,000.
  • The team with the entry receiving the third highest score based on the approach set forth here [link], after validation of eligibility, will receive $25,000.
• If any prize is won by a team with multiple members, the prize will be paid in equal shares to all team members identified in the finalist confirmations.
• No participant is a prize winner unless and until we have notified the participant in writing that we have determined they are a prize winner. If we disqualify any team that would otherwise have received a prize, the next best-scoring team will receive that prize, and so on to the extent of any cascading effect necessary.
• All prizes are subject to applicable tax reporting and withholding.
• In the event of a tie, or in the event of evidence that the entry scoring approach is subject to or has been manipulated in violation of the spirit of the Challenge, Arc in its sole discretion reserves the right to alter the entry scoring approach and/or prize amount structure in a manner it deems equitable.

Compliance With Law

• This challenge is void where prohibited or restricted by law.
• You must at all times comply with these rules and all applicable laws, including but not limited to immigration, export control, data privacy and protection, challenge, intellectual property, and other laws.

Disclaimer

• We and our affiliated entities, and our and their respective directors, officers, professional advisors, suppliers, vendors and employees (the “Released Parties”) will not be responsible for:
  1. any late, lost, misrouted, garbled or distorted or damaged transmissions or entries;
  2. technology malfunctions or failures;
  3. any typographical errors in any materials associated with the Challenge; or
  4. any actions or omissions of any party in connection with the Challenge.

Limitations of Liability, Releases, Indemnification

• By participating in the Challenge, you release all Released Parties from any liability related to the Challenge, and waive any and all causes of action, related to any claims, costs, injuries, losses, or damages of any kind arising out of or in connection with the Challenge or delivery, failed delivery, acceptance, possession, use of or inability to use the prize under any legal theory.
• TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL ANY RELEASED PARTY BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOSS OF USE, LOSS OF PROFITS OR LOSS OF DATA, WHETHER IN AN ACTION IN CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE) OR OTHERWISE, ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED TO YOUR PARTICIPATION IN THE CHALLENGE, EVEN IF A RELEASED PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
• TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL THE JOINT, AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF THE RELEASED PARTIES ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO YOUR PARTICIPATION IN THE CHALLENGE OR USE OF THE PRIZE EXCEED USD $10.
• To the maximum extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless the Released Parties from and against any and all claims, actions, suits or proceedings, as well as any and all losses, liabilities, damages, costs and expenses (including reasonable attorney’s fees) arising out of your breach of these rules or your willful misconduct.

Disputes

• You agree to our Arbitration Agreement which is incorporated into and forms part of these rules.
• These rules are governed by the substantive laws of California, without reference to conflicts of law rules.

General Terms and Conditions

• You agree to be bound by these rules and our decisions related to the Challenge, which are final and binding in all respects.
• We may change these rules at our sole discretion, as long as we take reasonable steps to notify all entrants according to the processes described in the introduction to these rules.
• We reserve the right to disqualify any team or team members if we believe that one or more members of the team have violated these rules, attempted to violate these rules, or encouraged others to violate these rules.
• We may suspend or cancel the Challenge, or your or any other individual’s participation in the Challenge, if we determine that circumstances beyond our reasonable control make it impracticable to continue administering the Challenge, including acts of God, natural disasters, pandemics, war, terrorism, governmental actions, labor disputes, widespread Internet or infrastructure failures, or any other events or conditions beyond our reasonable control. In these cases, we will make reasonable efforts to notify affected participants. We shall not be liable to you or any third party for any modification, suspension, or termination of the Challenge or these rules as a result of any force majeure event. If the Challenge is terminated, we may, but are not obligated to, determine prize winners based on eligible entries received before the date of termination.
• Our failure to enforce any term of these rules will not constitute a waiver of that provision.
• Any provision of these rules deemed unenforceable will be enforced to the extent permissible, and the remainder of these rules will remain in effect.
• We may assign, transfer, or delegate any of our rights or obligations under these rules to any third party, including any of our affiliates, successors, or assigns, at any time and without notice to you. You may not assign, transfer, or delegate your rights or obligations under these rules without our prior written consent, and any attempted assignment or delegation without such consent shall be null and void.
• The Challenge is administered in English. This English version of these rules controls in the event of any difference between this English version and any translated version.