RULES
WNE INNOVATION AWARDS 2023

ARTICLE 1 - PRINCIPLE OF THE AWARDS

On the occasion of the World Nuclear Exhibition that will take place from 28 to 30 November 2023, GIFEN and RX France are organizing the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS to reward the cutting-edge projects, technologies, products and services presented at the show.

ARTICLE 2 - APPLICANT ELIGIBILITY

Only WNE 2023 exhibitors can present projects for the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS.

In the case of a collaborative file with several actors, one of them must exhibit at WNE 2023. In this case, it is up to the members of the collaborative file to appoint one project’s holder. The size of the company of the project actor will define the subcategory to which the collaborative file will compete.

ARTICLE 3 - CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM

Projects submitted must relate to the show’s classification system (cf. appendix 1).

They will compete in 5 categories:

• Societal and Sustainable Responsibility Innovation

• Nuclear Safety Innovation

• Operational Excellence Innovation

• Skills & Knowledge Management Innovation

• Products and services Innovation

For all those categories, 2 prizes will be awarded:

• one for big groups/mid-caps

• and another one for SMEs and very small companies

according to the classification on appendix 2

The organiser reserves the right to eliminate one or more category(ies) for reasons of force majeure. The juries have the possibility of awarding a special prize for a particularly promising file but not yet sufficiently achieved

ARTICLE 4 - PRIZES

4.1 Selected candidates

The jury reserves the right to refuse certain application whose level does not correspond to the requirements of the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS criteria.

All successful applicants will benefit from a signature banner to use before the show as well as signage that they can download, print themselves and use on their stand for the duration of the show.

The title of their application, their company and their stand number will be included in the WNE Daily of the first day of the show.

4.2 Nominees

Three nominees by prize (category / Sub- category) will be announced on October 24, 2023 and will benefit from …

• A « nominee » banner to add to email signatures on October 25, 2023

• A presentation of the project in the press release dedicated to the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS nominees sent on October 24, 2023

• A mention in the newsletter sent on October 24, 2023

• A succinct presentation of the project on the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS dedicated page on the WNE website on October 24, 2023

• A mention as nominee in the WNE Tribune of Tuesday, November 28, 2023

• A « nominee » signage on the booth from the exhibition opening

• A “nominee” certificate awarded after the ceremony

4.3 Winners

A trophy will be given to each winner who will also benefit from (in addition to the promotion given to nominees) …

• A « winner » banner to add to email signatures send just after the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS Ceremony.

• A mention as winner in the press release dedicated to the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS sent just after the Awards Ceremony.

• A promotion on the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS dedicated page on the WNE website.

• A mention as winner in the WNE Daily of Wednesday, November 29, 2023.

• A mention in the newsletter sent the evening of the first day, Tuesday, November 28, 2023.

• A “winner” certificate awarded during the ceremony (also applicable to the special prize).

• A “winner” signage on the booth from Wednesday, November 29, 2023.

• A mention as 2023 winner on the online exhibitor area and on the website of the next edition of WNE.

In the case of a collaborative file presented by several actors, only the project holder will receive the trophy.

Other participants in the winning collaborative file will receive a diploma.

ARTICLE 5 - JUDGING CRITERIA

For the award of these WNE Awards, the following criteria will be taken into account:

FOR THE SOCIETAL AND SUSTAINABLE RESPONSIBILITY CATEGORY

The impact of a company includes all qualitative and quantitative modifications (negative or positive) of the environment and its functioning (human or natural), created by a project, a process, an organism or organisms, or a product or products, over its entire life cycle.

A positive impact results from activities that benefit the said environment (human or natural), or whose objective is to prevent or correct the negative effects of the activities and externalities of the actors of the nuclear sector.

The assessment of a positive impact of a company’s project, process or product is a) qualified by the creation of added value for the stakeholders that may be affected by the company’s activities (local and territorial communities, end-users, natural and living environment) b) quantified through the measurement of flows and potential environmental and socio-economic impact indicators (specific indicators for water, air, soil resources and human health, but also economic indicators of human and territorial development).

Criterias (might be changed by the jury):

• Results in terms of the positive impact of the innovation on the natural environment (indicators of potential flows and impacts on water, air, soil resources and human health),

• Results in terms of positive impact of the innovation on the human environment (employment, territorial development, reduction of inequalities, quality of the working environment, local creation of value/skills, empowerment/dialogue with stakeholders impacted by the activities),

• Sustainability of the innovation,

• Potential for deployment of the solution (scope of application of the innovation),

• Quality of the presentation and the application file.

FOR THE NUCLEAR SAFETY INNOVATION CATEGORY

Nuclear safety is a term defining all activities related to improving and/or maintaining the integrity of the mechanisms, processes, tools or instruments containing radioactive material, to protect people and the environment from harmful effects. This definition is not only restricted to nuclear sites. This Award is also open to applications dealing with logistics, manufacturing, components (non-exhaustive list) which bring additional nuclear safety to a global process.

Criterias (might be changed by the jury):

• Ability to answer a significant safety issue

• Universality of the solution

• Affordability of the solution: Cost effectiveness

• Quality of the presentation and of the application file

FOR THE OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE INNOVATION CATEGORY

Operational excellence is a systematic and methodical approach led inside the company in order to maximize performance in terms of productivity, quality of products and reliability, nuclear safety, and more generally of performance...

Criteria for the assessment of the files (subjects to amendments by the jury):

• Seniority of the approach, listening to customers (intern or external) and expectations taken into account

• Acquired skills: value for the customer/operational performance: ability to coordinate and lead a project in accordance with costs/delays/quality/reliability

• Fundamental improvement in “Do it right the first time” • Universality and international collaboration

• Ability to generate good practices, creation or addition of skills from a third part, sales benefits

• Quality of the presentation and of the application file

FOR THE SKILLS & KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT INNOVATION CATEGORY

It is defined as an integrated, systematic approach to identifying, acquiring, transforming, developing, disseminating, using, sharing, and preserving knowledge, relevant to achieving specified objectives.

Knowledge Management (KM) has been introduced to the nuclear industry as a response to the aging nuclear industry workforce, where the generation that designed, commissioned and initially operated these plants has begun to reach retirement age. KM tools for capture and transfer of knowledge from this aging workforce to its younger replacements have been emphasized.

While KM has certainly been used successfully for this purpose, KM has a larger, on-going application over the life of an NPP and beyond and this requirement is now a key feature of future workforce planning and development criteria for the New Nuclear Build programmes.

Knowledge is often described as either Explicit, Implicit and Tacit categories.

The following criteria have been selected for judging the quality of the award entry. Each of the criteria has been weighted according to the relevance and importance of the component:

• Leadership support for the Skills and knowledge management programme - degree to which management is actively supporting those practices that are known to influence employee behaviour and action to positively affect skills and knowledge management and capture processes and ensure the future sustainability of the skills and knowledge management programmes

• Quality of skills and knowledge retention, storage and updating processes - the process of keeping knowledge (whether tacit or explicit) and skills within the organization and maintaining its availability and relevance for future use. It incorporates the related concepts of skills and knowledge capture, preservation, storage, retrieval, accessibility, identification and protection in the context of internal organizational knowledge retention.

• Skills and knowledge sharing and transfer processes - the exchange of skills and knowledge within the organization (directly or indirectly) and including processes of skills and knowledge conveyance and distribution.

• Skills and knowledge acquisition and adoption processes - the process of obtaining and adopting new external knowledge (whether tacit or explicit) and know how into the organization. This is interpreted to include knowledge identification and selection processes for the purpose of acquisition.

• Skills and knowledge generation and validation processes - the creation of new skills and knowledge, typically by incremental knowledge development, and its validation within the organization. It may also include knowledge identification and selection processes associated with internal knowledge generation processes.

• Skills and knowledge utilization and application processes - the concept of internal organizational knowledge use (whether tacit or explicit) and including the process of adapting or interpreting it in a problem context.

• Quality of the presentation and of the application file

FOR THE PRODUCTS & SERVICES INNOVATION CATEGORY

In this category, “Products” are defined as “technology bricks” or technological building blocks which will contribute to shape the present and future nuclear technology facilities, such as that cannot be qualified as “product” any project of a fully designed reactor. “Services” includes all processes and methods of an organization. The products and services can be located anywhere along the nuclear value chain.

The OECD, in its Oslo manual, defines innovation as the “implementation” of a new or significantly improved product (good or service) or process, a new marketing method, or a new organizational method in business practices, workplace organization or external relations.

Therefore, the quality of innovation of the products and services will be determined based on the solution they provide. Each application will have to demonstrate the key differentiator of their innovation, with a comparison of its proposed cases of use with current ones, providing clear evidence of how the proposed product/service sets itself apart from existing solutions.

Criterias (might be changed by the jury):

• Impact of the innovation on existing practices and operating modes, clear presentation of the differentiator factor of the solution and its cases of use.

• Proposed innovation must be located between TRL 7 and TRL 9 as defined by the International Organization for Standardization. • Innovations with a proven commercial application will be valued.

• Spreading potential feature of the solution (cross-sector nature of the innovation). • Quality of the presentation and of the application file.

ARTICLE 6 - ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

Registration for new applications is in English only on a form available directly in the exhibitor area from June 2023.

To be eligible to the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS, applicants must apply before September 15, 2023:

• Fill in the application form in English on the exhibitor portal respecting the size limitations

• Read and accept WNE INNOVATION AWARDS rules

• Download pictures, logo in high resolution, documentation

• Specify for which category (big groups or SMEs and mid-caps) they apply

• Justify the participation as an exhibitor at WNE 2023

• Not be a WNE 2021 winner or nominee with this project

Exhibitors can present to the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS maximum 25 projects (Maximum 5 files by category).

Each file can only compete in one category.

ARTICLE 7 - INFORMATION ACCURACY

Applicants undertake to provide only bona fide and accurate information to the jury and in particular to avoid any omission or inaccuracy which may lead to an erroneous judgment.

In the event of irregularity, the jury reserves the right to withdraw any prize already awarded, to propose that the project compete in another category or to withdraw the project from the competition, without the exhibitor being able to make a claim.

Applicants may only submit projects, technologies, products or services that they have manufactured or designed themselves or of which they are stakeholder.

Entrants shall provide the organiser with assurances that the projects, technologies, products and services do not infringe on the rights of third parties that they hold the intellectual property rights on the products, solutions or systems they are submitting, and that they have obtained all the rights and/or authorizations required to enter them in the Awards.

The organiser declines all liability in this area.

ARTICLE 8 - JURYS

For each project, technology, product or service, a submission is complete when it includes all the information required to enable the jury to make an informed decision, specifically the entry form completed by the exhibitor, high-resolution photo- graphs or visuals, documentation containing the product’s technical characteristics, and any additional documents as necessary.

Each jury (one by category) will be composed with maximum 8 members, and a President.

In each jury, members will have to work in different entities and countries. If the entity or the company of a member of a jury applies, he will not be able to participate in the assessment of the file of his company or entity.

The list of jury members will be published on the WNE website in the “WNE Innovation Awards” section WNE Awards (world-nuclear-exhibition.com).

The decisions of the Judges regarding the prizes to be awarded are final and may not be appealed.

Each member of a jury will have to fill in a rating file on different criteria. The organisers will submit to the presidents of his jury an evaluation grid that will only be known by the members of the jury and never communicated to any third party. The president of a jury is free to organize phone calls in order to talk to the members of his jury.

Each member of a jury undertakes to respect the confidentiality of the information and documents entrusted to him not to send any copy of the files to anyone, not to reveal any company that competes and not to reveal any information on the choice of the jury he/she belongs to before the official WNE INNOVATION AWARDS Ceremony).

ARTICLE 9 - ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE RESULTS

The nominees will be announced on October 24th, 2023.

The final results (winner announcement) will be announced on Tuesday, November 28, 2023 during the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS Ceremony to allow each winner to disclose and promote their award(s) during the show and to the media.

ARTICLE 10 - INFORMATION USE TERMS AND CONDITIONS

The names and descriptions of the projects, technologies, products and services eligible to compete may be communicated before and during the show to the press and the industry. Any commercial or promotional reference to a prize received under these WNE INNOVATION AWARDS must specify the exact title of the Awards, the year of the award and the product category in which the prize was awarded.

ARTICLE 11  - ACCEPTANCE OF THE RULES

Entry for the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS implies full acceptance of all the provisions of these rules, with no possibility to dispute their terms and conditions or the results.

The decisions of the jury regarding the prizes to be awarded are final and may not be appealed. When the exhibitor accepts the participation conditions, he accepts the decision of the jury without recourse.

ARTICLE 12 - INTELLECTUAL PROPRIETY

The participants declare that they have not sold or conceded intellectual property rights attached to their projects, technologies, products and services that they present and all the rights and/or authorizations necessary for their presentation at the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS.

The organiser accepts no responsibility in this respect.

The winners allow the organiser to publish their full name, their full company details, the description of their projects, technologies, products and services that they have provided, without being able to claim any rights or remuneration whatsoever.

Participants authorize the organiser to photograph their projects, technologies, products and services free of charge and to reproduce and represent, for the life span of the rights concerned, free of charge and in any geographical location, the submitted products, solutions or system in the promotional tools of the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS and/or show (website, visitor guide, invitations, floorplan, promotional video, and so on) and more generally in all media designed to promote the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS and/or show (including but not limited to photographs of the WNE Awards and/or show that appear in the mainstream press or online, and television programs produced about or during the Awards and/or show).

Participants shall provide the organiser with assurances that they have obtained the rights to any intellectual property in relation to the projects, technologies, products and services they are submitting, as well as all rights and/or authorizations required for the aforementioned uses.

ARTICLE 13 - MODIFICATION OR CANCELLATION OF THE WNE AWARDS COMPETITION

The organizer shall not be liable for the cancellation of the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS due to cancellation or postponement of the show or due to a low number of entries.

The applicant assumes all risks associated with the possibility of the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS not being held, including sole responsibility for the expenses said applicant has incurred in entering the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS competition.

In the case of modification, postponement or cancellation of the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS, the Parties agree that the legal provisions relating to breach of contract (Articles 1219 and 1220 of the Civil Code) shall not apply.

In the case of modification, postponement or cancellation of the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS, whatever their circumstances or motivations, the participant may not claim any compensation whatsoever from the organizer, except in the event of gross negligence on the part of the organiser.

ARTICLE 14 - AMENDMENTS TO THE RULES . INDIVISIBILITY

The organizer reserves the right to make a decision on all cases not provided for in these rules and to make new provisions whenever the organizer deems this necessary to ensure the smooth running of the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS.

If any of the provisions of these rules are invalidated either in part or in full, this will in no way affect the other provisions contained herein. In such cases, the organizer agrees to negotiate in good faith the drafting of a provision which, to the extent possible, has an equivalent effect .

ARTICLE 15 - CONFIDENTIALITY AND PROTECTION OF PERSONAL DATA

The personal data provided by the applicant to Reed Expositions France is necessary for the fulfillment, administration, management and execution of its participation in the Awards. The individual identified in the application form and later communications may be contacted by RX France and the Jury of the Awards, for the purposes of facilitating their participations in the Awards and the experience of both the participant and RX France.

This data is processed in accordance with the Privacy Principles accessible via the link Privacy Policy.

In accordance with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU) 2016/679, the participant in the WNE INNOVATION AWARDS enjoy a right of access, opposition, erasure, and rectification of its personal data, which he may exercise by clicking on the link Your Rights.

ARTICLE 16 - DISPUTES - STATURE OF LIMITATIONS

In the event of a dispute, for whatever cause, entrants agree to submit their claim to the organizer, prior to initiating any proceedings, in a letter sent by registered post with acknowledgment of receipt. Any action undertaken before a period of 15 days has elapsed following receipt of said letter will be deemed inadmissible.

The parties expressly waive the right to avail themselves of the provisions of Article 1195 of the Civil Code relating to unforeseen circumstances and of Article 1223 of the Civil Code relating to the price reduction in the event of imperfect execution.

Pursuant to Article 2254 of the French Civil Code, the parties agree to set at one year (1 year) the deadline for the statute of limitations for claims and actions relating to the liability that the organizer may incur either as a result of its own actions, those of an employee or those of a third party, regardless of the cause. This period will commence as soon as the 15-day period referenced in the preceding paragraph has elapsed.

THE BOND BETWEEN APPLICANTS AND THE ORGANISER IS ENTIRELY AND EXCLUSIVELY GOVERNED BY FRENCH LAW. ANY DISPUTE SHALL BE SUBMITTED TO THE EXCLUSIVE JURISDICTION OF THE NANTERRE’S COURT AND THE FRENCH VERSION OF THIS TEXT WILL BE REFERRED TO

APPENDIX 1 - CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT (R&D), RESEARCH REACTORS, GEN IV, REACTORS MEDICAL APPLICATION

• Research centres and labs
• Nuclear fusion
 • Medical applications

NUCLEAR POWER PLANT (NPP) OPERATORS

• Large/high-power reactors
• Small modular reactors (SMRs)
• Network management

FUEL CYCLE PLANT OPERATORS

• Mining/extraction
• Conversion and enrichment
• Fabrication of fuel assemblies
• Reprocessing and MOX
• Packaging, handling and transportation of fuel

WASTE MANAGEMENT

• Waste treatment
• Recycling and reuse
• Packaging, handling and transportation of waste

SUBCONTRACTORS

• Civil engineering and support
• Fabrication of large components (turbo-alternator group, primary circuit equipment – steam generator, pressurizer, pumps, tanks • Rotating machinery (pumps)
• Material/metal suppliers (steel, copper etc)
• Boiler making and forging • Pipework and welding
• Ventilation and airconditioning (VAC)
• Electrical equipment, computers and instrumentation
• Remote control
• Taps
• Tools
• Consulting, engineering and other services
• IT
• Lifting and handling
• Logistics – cleaning and services
• Transportation
• Radiation protection
• Testing and control
• Certification
• Personal protective equipment (PPE)
• Property services
• Site security/protection

PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTES, SAFETY AUTHORITIES, ASSOCIATIONS, EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS, MEDIA, OTHERS

• Safety authorities
• Trade and industry associations
• Governmental and international organisations
• Education and training
• Recruitment
• Financial institutions and Insurance companies
• Media
• Others

APPENDIX 2 - CLASSIFICATION FOR COMPANY CATEGORIES

(LAW NO 2008-1354 RELATED TO THE ECONOMIC COMPANIES CATEGORY - DECEMBER 18, 2008)