Code of Conduct

Who this applies to

This code applies to everyone who takes part in an EIA program:

• Students and faculty.
• Mentors and speakers.
• Investors and partners.
• Volunteers and EIA staff.

It applies on site at the host university and in online sessions. It applies at EIA social events and excursions. It applies in program chats and workspaces and social media groups.

It also covers how you treat the customers and experts and investors you contact during the course.

Respect and inclusion

Our cohorts bring together people of many nationalities and languages. They bring many faiths and beliefs too. Everyone should be able to do their best work here.

• Treat everyone with courtesy. That includes people whose views you disagree with.
• Challenge ideas and not people. Feedback on a pitch is about the pitch.
• Make room for others in discussions. Many participants work in their second or third language.
• Respect people's names and pronouns. Respect their privacy and personal boundaries.

What is never acceptable

• Discrimination or abuse based on nationality or ethnicity. Or based on gender or gender identity or sexual orientation. Or based on religion or belief or disability or age or appearance. Or based on any similar characteristic.
• Harassment of any kind. That includes sexual harassment and unwanted physical contact. It includes unwelcome comments and stalking. It includes contacting someone after they asked you to stop.
• Bullying or intimidation or threats or violence.
• Photographing or filming or recording someone without their consent. Sharing images of them without their consent.
• Offensive content in presentations or chats or materials.
• Retaliating against anyone who reports a concern or helps with a report.

Honest work

We teach entrepreneurship by doing the real thing. So the numbers have to be real too.

• Report results you can evidence. A number nobody can evidence counts as zero. Revenue in EIA Ventures is checked against bank records.
• Present your own team's work. Credit other people's ideas and data and code and images when you use them.
• AI tools are welcome and encouraged. You stay responsible for everything you submit or present or send to a customer.
• Do not copy another team's idea or materials. Do not use what they shared in confidence.

Contacting customers and experts and investors

You will talk to real buyers during the course. They give students time because they trust students to be straight with them. Keep that trust.

• Say who you are. You are a student building a startup at the European Innovation Academy.
• Never claim anything about your product or results or partners or funding that you cannot back up. Never make health or safety or financial claims you are not allowed to make.
• Take payments only for things you will deliver. Keep any promise you make to a paying customer.
• Respect a no. Do not spam. Follow the platform rules and the data protection law that apply to your messages.

Teamwork

• Show up on time for your team and your sessions. Do your share of the work.
• Agree roles and decision-making and ownership early. Write them down. Revisit them if things change.
• Raise problems with your team first. If that does not work go to a mentor or staff member.
• If you need to leave a team do it openly. Agree what happens to the work you did together.

Mentors and speakers and investors and staff

People in a position of trust hold themselves to a higher standard.

• Give advice in the participants' interest and not your own.
• Disclose any personal investment in a team you mentor or assess. Disclose any business relationship with it too. EIA policy requires this.
• Never pressure a team to give equity or payment or data or rights. Not for help and not for introductions or a better score.
• Keep relationships with participants professional.

Venues and events and the cities we visit

• Follow the house rules of the host university. Look after its rooms and equipment and neighbours.
• Follow local law. That includes the law on alcohol. Illegal drugs are not tolerated at any EIA activity.
• At social events look out for each other. Make sure everyone gets home safely.
• Follow the instructions of EIA staff and venue staff. This matters most on safety. See the Safety Protocol.

Privacy and confidentiality

• Respect the personal information of other participants. Do not share their contact details or data or private messages outside the program without their agreement.
• Official photographers record EIA events. If you do not want to appear in photos or video tell a staff member.
• The Privacy Policy explains how EIA handles personal data.

How to report a concern

• Talk to any EIA staff member on site or in your online session. Or write to info@inacademy.eu.
• You can report something that happened to you. You can also report something you saw. You do not need proof to raise a concern.
• We handle reports discreetly. We share them only with the people who need to act on them.
• If you came with your university you can also go to your faculty lead.

What happens after a report

EIA listens to the people involved. Then we decide on a fair response that matches how serious the behaviour was. It depends on the case. It can be:

• A conversation and an agreed change in behaviour.
• A formal warning.
• Removal from a session or a team or an event or a role.
• Removal from the program with no right to take part further.
• Informing the home university for university cohorts.

If the law may have been broken EIA may involve the police or other authorities. The same applies if someone is at risk.

Updates

We review this code before each cohort. The date at the top shows the latest version. Send suggestions to info@inacademy.eu.