This spring, the Fund for Our Economic Future (the “Fund”), with support from the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, the Greater Cleveland Partnership, The Lozick Family Foundation, and DriveOhio will launch a $1 million, multi-year Mobility Paradox Prize to invest in big ideas that help Northeast Ohioans stranded economically by geography connect to tens of thousands of open positions. Through a series of rolling deadlines, the Fund anticipates awarding funding for up to 15 pilot projects over the next three years. In addition, good ideas not yet ready for implementation will be awarded technical assistance from the Fund and its partners, with the potential to receive funding in a future round.
Winners of round one will be announced in Summer 2019. Successful applicants will posit practical, scalable solutions that can break the mobility paradox.
The Fund will use the Paradox Prize to inspire innovations and eradicate paradoxes that bind our region’s economy. The Fund has set ambitious goals and the Fund requires all participants in its prize competition to abide by these Terms and Conditions, which are subject to change at any time.
In addition, as a condition to making an award to any proposals selected by the Fund, the competitor and the Fund will be required to enter into a separate Grant Agreement. If these Terms and Conditions conflict with or are inconsistent with the applicable Grant Agreement, the terms of the Grant Agreement will control.
FUNDING
No purchase or payment of any consideration is necessary to participate in the Paradox Prize Not valid where prohibited. Employees, officers, or directors of The Fund or any of the Fund’s affiliates are not eligible to participate in the Paradox Prize.
The Fund is under no obligation to fund a proposal. For selected proposal(s), prize agreement(s) may
include but aren’t necessarily limited to contract(s), grant(s), loan(s) or program-related investment(s).
The Fund will only fund solutions which address the selection criteria and the stated typologies and will be implemented in the 18-county1 footprint of the Fund.
Who may be funded:
Joint applications from all types of entities (listed below) including but not limited to nonprofits, companies, and individuals:
- Private companies or employers
- Community organizations
- Workforce agencies
1 Erie, Huron, Richland, Lorain, Ashland, Cuyahoga, Medina, Wayne, Lake, Geauga, Portage, Summit, Stark, Ashtabula, Trumbull, Mahoning and Columbiana counties
- Staffing solution agencies
- Mobility providers, including RTAs and for-profit and not-for-profit mobility solution providers What will not be funded:
- Programs and organizations being implemented outside the Northeast Ohio region
- Requests for support of fundraising events;
- Requests to cover operating deficits;
- Charities operated by service clubs;
- Activities to propagate a religious faith; support of political candidates; memorials;
- Conferences; group travel; honoraria for distinguished guests
CONFIDENTIALITY
Any and all information disclosed (orally, in writing and/or through tangible goods or records) by a competitor to the Fund with regard to the competitor’s business, anticipated business, customers, prospective customers, marketing projects or prospective projects, strategies, or assets, is considered confidential and a Trade Secret (as defined in 18 U.S.C. 1839(3)) (collectively, the “Confidential Information”). Such Confidential Information includes, but is not limited to: business and financial information, marketing, advertising, software, promotional and pricing strategies and plans, the terms, provisions and conditions of all agreements between the competitor and any third party including the Fund, all technical information and designs, including product ideas and product improvements, all information concerning the Fund’s customers and suppliers, including each customer or supplier’s residence, e-mail and business address, telephone number, information concerning the products and services purchased by a customer or from a supplier, and the needs, habits and the competitor’s course of dealing with each such customer and/or supplier. The term Confidential Information specifically includes: (a) all such information that has been disclosed by the competitor to the Fund prior to submission, and (b) all notes, analyses, compilations, studies or other documents prepared by the Fund which contains or otherwise reflects such Confidential Information disclosed by the competitor to the Fund.
The Fund will preserve and protect the Confidential Information from disclosure by exercising the same degree of care, but no less than a reasonable degree of care, as it uses to protect its own confidential information of a like nature to prevent the unauthorized use, dissemination or publication of the Confidential Information.
The Fund will not: (a) without the prior written consent of the competitor, disclose any Confidential Information to any person, and Confidential Information shall be shared with the employees of the Fund and other authorized agents of the Fund on a need-to-know basis, only (the “Authorized Persons”), (b) use any Confidential Information for the Fund’s own benefit, other than as expressly authorized in writing by the competitor, (c) use any Confidential Information to solicit, call on, or perform services for any competitor, customer, or supplier of the competitor, or (d) disassemble, decompile, reverse engineer, modify, translate, or create derivative works based on any of the competitor’s Confidential Information. Notwithstanding, the Fund will not be in breach of this Agreement for the disclosure of a Trade Secret that (i) is made (A) in confidence to a Federal, State, or local government official, either directly or indirectly, or to an attorney; and (B) solely for the purpose of reporting or investigating a suspected violation of law; or (ii) is made in a complaint or other document filed in a lawsuit or other proceeding, if such filing is made under seal.
The confidentiality prohibitions set forth above will not apply with respect to any information which, (a) as of the date of disclosure is in the public domain not as the result of any conduct by the Fund; (b) becomes a part of the public domain after the date of disclosure through no fault of the Fund; (c) is subsequently obtained by the Fund from a third party who is not under an obligation of confidentiality to the disclosing competitor; or (d) is independently developed by the Fund without reliance on, or reference to, the Confidential Information.
All Confidential information will remain the property of the competitor, but materials submitted in the proposal process become the property of the Fund and may not be returned. As such, competitors are encouraged to keep copies of all submission materials. If a competitor’s proposal is not selected for an award, all tangible Confidential Information and other items delivered to or obtained by the Fund and all written notes and other information related to the Confidential Information prepared by the Fund will be either returned to the competitor or destroyed, in the Fund’s discretion
A competitor’s submission of materials to the Fund shall not be deemed a grant to the Fund or any Authorized Person of any intellectual property rights or licenses to, or any right to use, the Confidential Information, except as otherwise provided herein.
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