1. Who we are

The Sovereign AI Awards are promoted by UKAI - UKAI Trade Organisation Limited ("UKAI"), a trade association for the UK's AI industry. For the purposes of UK data protection law (the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018), UKAI is the data controller for personal data submitted through the nomination form.

2. What personal data we collect

When you submit a nomination, we collect:

• Your own details as the person making the nomination, including your name, email address and organisation.
• Details about the nominated company, including its name and other organisational information relevant to the nomination.
• The email address of a contact person at the nominee company, so that we can get in touch with them about the nomination if it is shortlisted.

Please only include personal data that is necessary for the nomination, and do not submit sensitive personal data (such as details about health, race, religion or similar) through the form.

Nominating someone else

If you provide us with the contact details of someone at the nominee company, you confirm that you are authorised to share that information with us and that you will, where practical, let them know they have been nominated and that their contact email will be used by UKAI for the purposes described in this notice. We will in any event aim to inform the nominee contact directly if their nomination is progressed, in line with our obligations under Article 14 of the UK GDPR.

3. Why we use your data and our lawful basis

We use the personal data submitted through the nomination form to:

• administer and process nominations for the Sovereign AI Awards;
• share nominations with our judging panel for review and shortlisting;
• contact nominators and nominee contacts about the status of a nomination, shortlisting, or the awards ceremony;
• maintain records of the awards process for administrative and audit purposes.

We rely on legitimate interests as our lawful basis for this processing: it is in our legitimate interest, and that of the wider UK AI industry, to run a credible, well-administered awards programme that recognises achievement in the sector. Where we ever wish to use your data for a materially different purpose, such as direct marketing beyond the awards process, we will ask for your separate consent.

4. Who we share your data with

We use a third-party platform to host and manage the nomination form on our behalf. That provider processes the data strictly under our instructions, as our data processor, and under a written data processing agreement that requires it to keep the data secure and confidential.

We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it with other third parties for their own marketing purposes. We may disclose personal data where required by law or to protect our legal rights.

International transfers

If any of our service providers store or process data outside the UK, we will ensure an appropriate safeguard is in place, such as the UK's International Data Transfer Addendum or a finding of adequacy, before the transfer takes place.

5. How long we keep your data

We retain nomination data for the duration of the relevant awards cycle, including judging and the ceremony, and for a further 12 months afterwards for record-keeping and audit purposes. After this period, personal data is securely deleted unless we are required to keep it for longer by law.

6. Your rights

Under UK data protection law, you have the right to:

• ask us for a copy of the personal data we hold about you;
• ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data;
• ask us to delete your data, in certain circumstances;
• ask us to restrict or object to our processing of your data;
• ask for your data to be provided to you or another organisation in a portable format, where relevant;
• withdraw consent, where processing is based on consent.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at [email protected]. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk if you are unhappy with how we have handled your data.

7. Keeping your data secure

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, loss, misuse or alteration, and we require our third-party processor to do the same.

8. Nomination terms

• Nominations must be submitted using the form provided and must, to the best of your knowledge, be accurate.
• Submitting a nomination does not guarantee shortlisting, judging review or any award.
• UKAI reserves the right to verify, amend, decline or withdraw a nomination at its discretion, including where information provided is incomplete, inaccurate or submitted without appropriate authorisation.
• UKAI reserves the right to amend the awards process, categories, timeline or these terms, and will publish any material changes on this page.
• If a nominee is shortlisted or wins an award, UKAI may publicise the nominee company's name and category in connection with the awards; this notice does not extend to using individuals' personal data for promotional purposes without separate agreement.

9. Changes to this notice

We may update this notice from time to time, for example to reflect changes in our processes or the law. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last updated.

10. Contact us

If you have any questions about this notice or how your data is used, contact us at [email protected].