Rapid Solution Labs - Participant GuideG7 GovAI Grand Challenge

2. Submitting a solution

Eligibility

Eligible participants must be persons legally residing in a G7 country (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom or the United States) or the European Union.

Participants enter the RSLs in their personal capacity and represent and warrant that any third-party authorizations or permissions necessary for them to participate have been obtained.

Current and former federal public servants of the Government of Canada

Public servants who work for the Government of Canada are eligible to register, compete and have submissions judged, but they are not eligible to receive funding. They must participate on their own time and without the use of Government of Canada resources.  Former public servants who worked for the Government of Canada may receive funding, subject to post-employment conditions.

A public servant who works for the Government of Canada is defined as any employee or office holder of a department named in Schedule I of the Financial Administration Act (FAA), an organization named in Schedule IV of the FAA, or an agency named in Schedule V of the FAA. Federal public servants who work for the Government of Canada are also defined as including the following:

• indeterminate, term, casual, student, seasonal, seconded and Interchange Canada participants
• public servants who are on paid or unpaid leave

Teams

Teams of up to four members are eligible to participate. Team participants understand that only one member of the team will serve as the primary contact and will make a submission to RSLs on the team’s behalf. Should a team be selected to receive funds, the funds will be sent solely to the primary contact. Duplicate entries will not be assessed.

Age

The primary contact submitting solutions must be at least 18 years of age or have a non-participating guardian submit the application form on their behalf.

Verification and disqualification

RSLs are being organized by His Majesty the King in right of Canada as represented by the President of the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (the organizer). The organizer may require proof of eligibility at any time and may disqualify a participant for ineligibility or misrepresentation, including after submission. If disqualified, a participant forfeits any funding and/or recognition, and the organizer may remove related public references.

Submissions must be made in English or French.

Age group categories

Teams can include members for either the 13–17 or 18–29 age group categories. The age of the eldest team member determines the team’s age category eligibility. For example, a team with members aged 14, 17, 20 and 25 would be placed in the 18–29 category.

Teams that have any member aged 30 or older are not eligible for these age group categories.

Age is determined by the age that an individual will turn in 2025.

Country

For teams made up of participants from different countries, the country of residence of the primary contact determines the country category of the team.

Conflict of interest

All participants agree to comply with any applicable professional or institutional conflict of interest obligations and confirm that none of these obligations bar participation.

Participants must not have been involved in the design or development of RSLs, including the development of the problem statements.

All participants agree to comply with all applicable laws, rules and guidelines of their country of residence. 

By participating in RSLs, each participant confirms that they are in compliance with the eligibility requirements.

3. How to send your submission

Only submissions received through the Impact Canada web portal (Impact Canada portal) will be accepted. The deadline is December 1, 2025, at 3 p.m. Eastern Time . Incomplete or late submissions will not be assessed or considered further, with no exceptions.

Application form

To enter the RSLs, you must complete the application form, which is available on the Impact Canada website.

The application form requires the following information:

• details on the participant(s)
• details on the proposed solution
• acknowledgement and acceptance of the terms and conditions

Solution details must be concise but comprehensive and adhere to the specified word limits.

Links to websites will not be assessed, except for the video portion and optional GitHub repository that demonstrate and support the solution.

The video portion must:

• be submitted in English or French
• be no longer than five minutes (5:00)
• clearly demonstrate the product in action
• be uploaded to YouTube, ensuring that:
  • the video URL is unedited, accessible from any country, and remains live from the time of submission until March 31, 2026
  • broken or unavailable links, or videos that exceed the maximum length, will not be considered

Participants may optionally include a link to a GitHub repository to support their submission. If included, please provide an unedited URL. This repository may be used as an additional reference for judges to assess explainability and usability, but it is not required.

The application form consists of three main sections:

Section 1: Participant details

Section 1 collects basic information about the primary contact and, if applicable, the team member(s) submitting a solution to RSLs.

Section 2: Submission details

In this section, you must provide details on your proposed solution and answer questions that relate to the assessment criteria. Proposals can be submitted in English or French.

Section 3: Agreement

In this section, you:

• confirm that you have read and understood this Rapid Solution Labs Participant Guide
• agree to be bound by this guide’s terms and conditions
• acknowledge the rules governing intellectual property
• acknowledge your non-involvement in the design or development of RSLs
• acknowledge the eligibility requirements for public servants

If you are the primary contact for a team submission or a guardian submitting an application on behalf of an underage participant, you:

• confirm that you have the authority to accept these terms on behalf of all team members
• will ensure that each team member receives and accepts this agreement

Dates

Participants may submit at any time during the two-week submission period.

Timeline

November 17, 2025, at 9 am Eastern Time
The two-week submission period opens.

December 1, 2025, at 3 pm Eastern Time
The submission period ends.

December 2025 to January 2026
Submissions go through a pre-screening process and are assessed by judges. Judges will select up to 20 participants from each country as finalists. Finalists and their solutions will be featured online so that these innovative solutions are publicly available.

February 2026
Judges deliberate and select funding recipients to recognize exceptional solutions that innovatively address barriers to AI adoption in the public sector. Up to 10 recipients will be selected from the total pool of finalists.

Recipients of funding and all other participants will be notified of their RSLs status. Funding recipients will be invited to showcase their solution in March.

March 2026
Showcase Day: Recipients will virtually present their solutions to a panel of judges in real time.

4. Support

Contact

If you have questions or need assistance, you can write to the general inbox at g7aichallenge-defiiag7@tbs-sct.gc.ca .

Events

Participants are invited to attend two optional online sessions during the submission period:

• one session will feature experts on the subject matter and the example data provided
• the other session will include mentors answering common questions from the Ask Me Anything Discord channel

During both events, participants can ask questions in the meeting chat for response by mentors and experts. More information is available here.

These sessions will be recorded and posted online for all participants to view.

• Participant cameras and microphones will be turned off.
• Questions will not be attributed to any specific individual.
• No identifiable information will be shared.

Note that following advice from these sessions does not guarantee success in the RSLs.

Discord server

The Rapid Solution Labs’ Discord server is a place for participants to connect, collaborate and interact. An automated moderation tool is in place to maintain a respectful and safe environment, but there are no live human moderators. Participants are expected to follow community guidelines and engage responsibly.

The server features the following:

• team formation opportunities: a place for participants to connect and find teammates
• discussion channels: separate channels for each RSLs statement, allowing focused discussion on specific challenges
• Ask Me Anything (AMA) channels: an online channel to post questions before the virtual AMA event; the organizer will answer the most popular questions

Participants are encouraged to use the Discord channel throughout the RSLs to collaborate, ask questions and share insights.

5. Assessment and selection process

Eligible submissions will go through a rigorous evaluation process, including the following:

• a pre-screening phase to ensure that solutions consider bias and data protection and meet minimum quality standards
• a judging phase in which an interdisciplinary panel of AI experts will assess submissions’ merit against the following criteria:
  • impact and social good: To what extent does the solution have the potential to bring demonstrable positive benefits to users, clients and society, including to what extent does it incorporate responsible AI principles?
  • interoperability: To what extent can the solution be used and shared by different governments or ministries within governments or its outputs work within existing systems or processes?
  • explainability: To what extent can the outputs and/or decisions be explained?
  • scalability: To what extent can the solution expand, add additional features or support future growth to serve more users, clients, regions or use cases?
  • accessibility: To what extent is the solution accessible for persons with disabilities, different literacy levels, or limited access to technology?
  • usability: To what extent is the system usable, including to what extent were human-centred design principles incorporated?

Judges will review submissions and provide recommendations to the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) to determine recipients who will receive funding. Additional expertise from TBS officials and/or other government departments may be sought in the review process, based on submission content. Please note, submissions may be translated for the purposes of assessment.

The final determination of primary contacts who will receive funding rests with TBS. All decisions and selections will be final and not subject to appeal.

6. Funding

Up to $100,000 CAD in total funding will be awarded to up to 10 recipients to help them advance their solutions and finalize their presentations for the Showcase Day. These recipients and their solutions will be featured on our website. Funding will be awarded in amounts of up to $10,000 CAD per recipient, as follows:

• up to $10,000 CAD for the top solution from each of the G7 nations and the European Union (up to eight successful submissions)
• up to $10,000 CAD for the top submission from the 13–17 age group category (one successful submission)
• up to $10,000 CAD for the top submission from the 18–29 age group category (one successful submission)
• non-monetary honourable mention(s) that will receive recognition on our website

7. General terms and conditions

Interpretation

RSLs are being organized by His Majesty the King in right of Canada as represented by the President of the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (the organizer).

Participation in RSLs shall be governed by the terms and conditions set out in the entirety of this document.

Definitions

Organizer materials

All materials the organizer provides for use during RSLs, including logos, copyrighted works, datasets, starter kits, sample code, application programming interfaces (APIs) and prompts.

Permitted uses

1. Administering and judging RSLs
2. Promotional, marketing, educational and presentation purposes in connection with RSLs (for example, event websites, recap posts, award announcements and highlight reels)

Primary contact

The individual designated by a team or individual to submit a solution, receive funding on behalf of the team, and serve as the official point of contact. Must be 18 years of age or older or be a non-participating guardian acting for minors.

Recipient

A primary contact who is selected to receive funding for their successful submission.

Third-party materials

Software, code, libraries, models, datasets, services, application programming interfaces (APIs), and other materials not owned by the participant.

Work product

All materials, outputs, code, prototypes, data (excluding personal data), presentations, documents, images and other content that participants individually or jointly create, develop or submit in connection with RSLs.

Intellectual property

Ownership

Except for third-party materials and organizer materials, the participant retains all rights, title and interest in and to the contributed work product.

Organizer materials

The organizer retains all rights in organizer materials. No rights are granted other than a limited right to use them for RSLs participation.

Limited licence

The participant grants the organizer a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive and sub-licensable license to use, reproduce, translate, publicly display, publicly perform, distribute and create non-software derivative works of non-executable portions of the work product (for example, screenshots, videos, demo recordings, pitch decks and descriptive write-ups) solely for permitted uses.

Non-assertion covenant

Solely to enable the permitted uses, participant covenants are not to assert any claim of intellectual property infringement against the organizer or its judges, sponsors, venues, media partners and service providers arising from permitted uses.

Moral rights

To the extent permitted by law, the participant waives any moral rights that would interfere with permitted uses.

Attribution and publicity

The organizer will use reasonable efforts to credit the participant (individual or team name) for permitted uses. The participant grants the organizer a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use the participant’s name, team name, likeness, voice and biographical information solely for permitted uses.

Licensing recommendation

To promote learning, reuse and social benefit, the organizer encourages (but does not require) the participant to release participant-authored portions of the work product under any of the following:

• the MIT License
• the Apache License, version 2.0
• the Open Government Licence (Canada), version 2.0

Third-party materials

Proper licensing and compliance

The participant confirms that any third-party materials, including open-source software components, used in or with the work product:

1. are properly licensed to the participant
2. are used strictly per their terms, including acceptable use policies, usage limits attribution and/or notice requirements
3. do not impose obligations on the organizer beyond those expressly accepted herein

No confidential information

The participant will not provide confidential information to the organizer, judges, sponsors or other participants. The organizer assumes no confidentiality obligations regarding submissions.

Representations: warranties and indemnity

Participant warranties

The participant confirms that:

1. the participant has the right to grant the licences herein
2. the work product as submitted will not infringe, misappropriate or violate third-party rights
3. the participant’s RSLs activities comply with law and third-party terms
4. some substantial portion of the work product submitted is novel and created for RSLs

Indemnity

To the extent permitted by law, the participant will defend and indemnify the organizer and its affiliates, officers, employees, agents, judges, sponsors and contractors from third-party claims arising from breach of this agreement or participant’s wilful misconduct during RSLs.

Privacy Notice Statement

The personal information you provide in the RSLs application form, and in documents in support of the application, is collected under the authority of the Financial Administration Act (FAA). The activities related to RSLs are described in Standard Personal Information Banks Outreach Activities PSU 938 and Public Communications PSU 914.

The organizer may use your information for the following purposes:

• to process the application, validate credentials, verify the accuracy of the information provided in the application form and in any additional documents submitted, and facilitate payment of the contribution in the event the submission is successful
• for program administration and evaluation, reporting and statistical analysis, including for Gender-Based Analysis Plus purposes
• for publication of funding recipients and honourable mentions

The organizer will share your personal information with pre-screeners and the RSLs judges for the evaluation process.

Your submission may also be shared with other government organizations:

• if additional expertise is required in the review process, based on submission content, to determine the eligibility of a solution
• to contact you to discuss licensing or further developing a solution

Participation in RSLs and the provision of your personal information is voluntary. However, missing or incomplete submission information may result in processing delays and could render the submission invalid.

Personal information will be handled in accordance with the Privacy Act . Individuals have the right to the protection and correction of, and access to, their personal information. For personal information under the control of TBS, these rights may be exercised by contacting the TBS Access to Information and Privacy Office . Individuals also have the right to file a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada concerning TBS’s handling of their personal information.

Code of conduct

Zero tolerance for harassment or abuse

Harassment or abuse includes offensive comments or behaviour related to personal characteristics (for example, gender, race, disability, sexual orientation or religion), as well as actions such as sharing explicit content, using vulgar language, intimidation, stalking, doxxing, or disruptive behaviour in chats or sessions.

Respect others’ comfort

If your behaviour makes someone uncomfortable, it qualifies as harassment and must stop immediately. All participants are expected to comply when asked to cease inappropriate conduct.

Applies to everyone

The RSLs code of conduct applies to all participants, including judges, mentors, sponsors, volunteers and organizers.

Participants shall guarantee:

As of the date of application to the RSLs until the conclusion of the RSsL, Participant is not a member of, or acting on behalf of, a “criminal organization” or “terrorist group” as those terms are defined under the Criminal Code, and (b) not a “designated person” or otherwise subject to prohibitions under applicable Canadian sanctions laws.

Participant will (a) comply with all applicable laws and the Code of Conduct; and (b) not engage in, encourage, or threaten violence, harassment, intimidation, doxxing, extortion, fraud, defamation or other conduct that materially disrupts the safety or operations of the RSLs.

Participant will not falsely claim or imply any affiliation with, sponsorship by, or endorsement from the organizer, any public authority, or any criminal or unlawful group, and will not knowingly make materially false statements about the RSLs or the organizer and its personnel.

Consequences for violations

The organizer reserves the right to take appropriate action, including warnings, removal from RSLs or exclusion of submissions, especially in cases that involve privacy, copyright, defamation or hate speech.

Eligibility and right to refuse participation

Participation in RSLs is a privilege, not a right. The organizer reserves the right to reject or revoke participation or submission of any individual or team that engages in, supports, or is associated with activities deemed malicious, unlawful or contrary to the principles of fairness, safety or the integrity of RSLs.

These rules apply across all virtual platforms and communications used during RSLs events. If at any time a member of the organizing team deems a participant’s behaviour to violate the code of conduct described here, their solution may be disqualified.

Unpaid debts to the Government of Canada

A recipient of funds must declare any amounts owing to the Government of Canada. Any amounts due to the recipient as part of RSLs may be offset against any such amounts owing to the Government of Canada under any agreement or any legislation with the Government of Canada.

M-30 Act

If applicable, the participant confirms that they have complied with the Act respecting the Ministère du Conseil exécutif (Québec) (CQLR c. M-30) (“M-30”) prior to submitting their application form for RSLs.

Choice of law

These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada. In the event of a dispute, the courts located in Ottawa, Ontario, shall have exclusive jurisdiction.