Notices

NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT OF ANY KIND IS NECESSARY TO ENTER, VOTE, OR WIN. A PURCHASE OR PAYMENT WILL NOT IMPROVE AN ENTRANT’S CHANCES OF WINNING OR PLACING. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED OR RESTRICTED BY LAW, INSTITUTIONAL POLICY, OR LOCAL REGULATION.

These Official Rules govern the Twist Bioscience “Side Quest” Grant Contest (the “Contest”). By entering or voting, you accept these Official Rules in full.

Section I: Official Contest Rules

1. Sponsor

The Contest is sponsored and administered by Twist Bioscience Corporation, 681 Gateway Blvd, South San Francisco, CA 94080, USA, together with its subsidiaries and regional affiliates (“Twist” or “Sponsor”).

2. Contest Period

(a) Submission Period: Begins at Academic Hub November 9, 2026 and closes Tuesday, December 15, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time.

(b) Voting Period: Begins December 16, 2026, and closes Friday, January 15, 2027, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time.

3. Eligibility

3.1 Entrants. The Contest is open to natural persons who, at the time of entry: (a) are age 18 or older; (b) are researchers affiliated with an accredited academic institution or non-profit research institute, at any career stage and in any discipline; and (c) whose work uses, or could credibly use, Twist technology. Researchers at for-profit companies are not eligible to enter.

3.2 Voters. Voting is open to any natural person age 18 or older. Voters do not need to submit an entry, and do not need a Twist account, to vote.

3.3 Geographic Scope. The Contest is open to eligible residents of qualifying AMER and EMEA regions. The Contest is not open to, and no entry or vote will be accepted from, residents of Italy or Israel. The Contest is not offered in the APAC region in this round.

3.4 Exclusions. Employees, officers, directors, agents, and contractors of Twist, and their immediate family members and household members, may view entries but may not enter or vote.

4. How to Enter

(a) Account. Visit the Academic Hub at www.twistbioscience.com/academic and sign into your Twist ecommerce account. If you do not have one, you will be directed to create one at no cost, then returned to the Hub.

(b) Record a video. Record an original short video (approximately 60 seconds recommended; landscape orientation recommended) pitching a research idea. Appearing on camera is not required, provided you created the video.

(c) Submit. Submit the video through the Contest submission form, together with the requested contact details and a written pitch of 200 to 500 words. Your pitch must identify the type of Twist product your proposed work would use. The pitch is collected for Twist’s review and is not published alongside the video.

Limit: one (1) entry per person. There are no team entries. Each entry has a single submitter. Other individuals may appear in or be credited in the video, but any prize is awarded solely to the Twist account associated with the submitter’s email address.

5. Submission Requirements and Screening

No entry appears on the leaderboard automatically. Each submission is reviewed by Twist and published manually only if approved. Review is conducted on a rolling basis during the Submission Period.

An entry will be rejected, or withheld from publication, if it contains any of the following: (a) obscene content; (b) racist content, or content that attacks or demeans any group; (c) confidential or proprietary information, including unpublished data the entrant is not free to share, or material controlled by the entrant’s institution or principal investigator; (d) material the entrant does not have the rights to use, including music, stock footage, figures from other laboratories, or any person who appears without their agreement; (e) identifiable human subject data, including patient images, scans, or records that have not been de-identified; (f) performance claims regarding Twist products; (g) disparagement of any named competitor, or prominent competitor branding; or (h) work that is not the entrant’s own, including plagiarized, AI-generated, or proxy submissions.

Entries involving select agents, pathogens of concern, or research raising dual-use concerns will be escalated for further review rather than rejected automatically.

Twist reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to refuse, remove, or disqualify any entry that does not comply with these Official Rules, without obligation to notify the entrant.

6. Submission License

By submitting an entry, each entrant grants Twist a worldwide, royalty-free, fully paid-up, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, sublicensable license to host, store, reproduce, stream, display, adapt, and otherwise use the submitted video and pitch, in whole or in part, across Twist platforms and channels for purposes of operating the Contest and for Twist’s marketing and promotional activities.

Each entrant represents and warrants that the submission is the entrant’s own original work, that the entrant has all rights necessary to grant this license, and that the submission does not infringe or violate the rights of any third party.

7. Voting

(a) Voting opens only after the Submission Period closes, so that each published entry receives equal exposure for the same length of time.

(b) Voting does not require a Twist account. To vote, a voter provides an email address. On a first vote, the voter also provides first and last name; on return visits, email alone.

(c) Limit: one (1) vote per person per day during the Voting Period.

(d) Entrants may share their entries and encourage others to vote.

No entrant or voter may use bots, scripts, macros, automated tools, proxy or multiple accounts, paid voting services, or any other means to inflate or manipulate vote counts. No entrant may offer or provide any payment, gift, or other benefit to any person in exchange for votes.

Twist reserves the right to invalidate any votes it reasonably believes to be fraudulent or non-compliant, to revoke voting privileges, and to disqualify any entry associated with vote manipulation.

8. Winner Selection

The community vote decides the winners outright. Twist does not select or score the winners. The three (3) entries with the highest valid vote counts at the close of the Voting Period will be awarded first, second, and third place respectively.

Tie-breaker: If two or more entries tie for any of the three places, voting will reopen on the tied entries for a period of one (1) week. This runoff will repeat as necessary until the tie is broken.

9. Prizes

Prizes are awarded solely as credit to the winner’s Twist Wallet and are redeemable only against eligible Twist research products for internal research use. Twist’s standard supply terms apply to all orders placed against Wallet funds. Wallet funds expire December 31, 2027, after which any unused balance is forfeited. Prizes are non-transferable and may not be exchanged for cash. No substitution is permitted except by Twist, which may substitute a prize of equal or greater value where necessary. The total approximate retail value of all prizes is USD $25,000.

10. Winner Verification and Award Conditions

Before any prize is awarded, each potential winner must: (a) verify their identity and eligibility; (b) provide any tax documentation Twist reasonably requires; and (c) confirm that their institution permits acceptance of the award. Winners are responsible for any taxes arising from a prize and for compliance with their own institution’s policies.

If a potential winner cannot be verified, is ineligible, declines the prize, is restricted by institutional policy or applicable law, or fails to meet any condition of these Official Rules, Twist may disqualify that entry and award the prize to the entry with the next-highest valid vote count.

Winners will be announced publicly and may be featured in Twist’s Lab Report and related channels.

11. General Conditions

(a) Publicity: Except where prohibited by law, acceptance of a prize constitutes consent for Twist to use the winner’s name, institution, and entry for promotional purposes without further compensation.

(b) Release: By entering or voting, each participant releases Twist from any liability for any loss, damage, or injury arising from participation in the Contest or acceptance or use of any prize, to the fullest extent permitted by law.

(c) Modification: Twist reserves the right to suspend, modify, or terminate the Contest if fraud, technical failure, or any other factor beyond Twist’s reasonable control impairs the integrity or proper functioning of the Contest.

(d) Governing Law: These Official Rules are governed by the laws of the State of California, USA, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles, subject to any mandatory consumer-protection laws of a participant’s country of residence.

(e) Compliance with Institutional Policy: Each participant is responsible for ensuring that participation, and acceptance of any prize, comply with the policies of their employer or institution, including policies applicable to public-sector and publicly funded researchers.

Section II: Privacy and Data Protection Notice

This notice applies to entrants and voters and describes how Twist Bioscience Corporation, as controller, processes personal data in connection with the Contest. Twist processes personal data in accordance with applicable data protection laws, including the EU and UK GDPR, the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection, and the CCPA.

Personal Data Collected. From entrants: name, email address, Twist account details, institutional affiliation, the submitted video, and the written pitch. From voters: email address, and (on a first vote) first and last name. From entrants and voters, automatically: IP address, device and browser identifiers, timestamps, and voting-activity logs, processed to enforce vote limits, detect manipulation, and maintain Contest integrity.

Purposes and Lawful Bases. (a) Operating the Contest (entry, publication, voting, winner selection, and prize fulfilment): processing necessary to perform these Official Rules with you, GDPR Article 6(1)(b). (b) Vote-integrity and fraud prevention (IP logs, device identifiers, timestamps): Twist’s legitimate interest in running a fair contest, GDPR Article 6(1)(f). (c) Marketing communications: your consent, GDPR Article 6(1)(a). Opting in is entirely optional, is collected through a separate, unticked checkbox, and has no effect on your ability to vote or enter. You may withdraw consent at any time using the unsubscribe link in any email.

Data Sharing and International Transfers. Twist shares personal data with third-party service providers that host the Contest platform and support prize fulfilment, each acting as a processor under a written data processing agreement and permitted to use the data only for the Contest. Personal data transferred from the EU, UK, or Switzerland to the United States is protected under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (and the UK and Swiss extensions) where applicable, or otherwise under Standard Contractual Clauses.

Retention. Entry materials are retained for the duration of the Contest and as needed for the license granted in Section I.6 and for Twist’s record-keeping. Voting and technical integrity logs are retained for three (3) months after the Contest concludes, for audit and fraud-verification purposes, after which they are deleted or anonymized. Marketing opt-in records are retained until you withdraw consent.

Your Rights. You have the right to access, rectify, or erase your personal data, to restrict or object to processing, to data portability, and to withdraw consent, as provided by applicable law. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority. To exercise these rights, contact privacy@twistbioscience.com.

Section III: Contact

For questions regarding the Contest or these Official Rules, contact Twist Bioscience Corporation at academia@twistbioscience.com