Access Terms¶

These Access Terms govern your access to and use of the Isambard 3 or Isambard AI high-performance computing system (each being ‘the System’) and are presented to each user when they first request access to the System.

Your attention is drawn in particular to the Liability section at the end of these Access Terms, which excludes our liability in respect of the System.

Please read these Access Terms. By clicking to accept these Access Terms or (if earlier) accessing the System, you will be entering into a contract with the University of Bristol (referred to as ‘we’ or ‘us’ in these Access Terms) on behalf of your institution or other legal entity you are working for, and you warrant that you have authority to agree to these Access Terms on behalf of that legal entity. If you do not agree to these Access Terms, we will not be able to register you or allow you to use the service. When we refer to ‘you’ in these Access Terms, this means the institution or other legal entity on behalf of which you access or use the System.

No specific copy of these Access Terms will be filed under your name, but you can look at them at any time by going to https://docs.isambard.ac.uk/policies/access_terms/. These Access Terms are offered only in English.

In these Access Terms, references to ‘Material’ are to the software (including machine images), data, text, audio, video, images or other item you transfer to the System for processing or storage by the System in connection with your account and any data or computational results that you derive in respect of such items through your use of the System.

You agree¶

General¶

Only to use the System in accordance with these Access Terms, for the purposes of the project (which, unless otherwise agreed in writing with us, must be a UKRI grant award) for which you are given System access by us (“Research Project”), in accordance with the description you have previously provided to us in respect of the Research Project;
You must make every reasonable effort to ensure that the knowledge and other intellectual assets obtained in the course of your access to and use of the System, whether protected by intellectual property rights or not, are used in accordance with the Isambard AI Project Description appended as Schedule 4. You undertake to disseminate the useful results acquired from all research, carried out by you by means of the System, to the public and others able to utilise or benefit from it and that such research will not be undertaken for private or commercial consumption or gain;
Not to misuse the System, for example by sending spam or malicious software, by pretending to be someone else or by doing anything that might hinder or prevent someone else from using the System, nor to try to breach/subvert its security or use resources which aren’t assigned to you;
Not to use the System for illegal or immoral purposes, such as theft, fraud, drug-trafficking, money-laundering, terrorism, pornography, violence, cruelty, incitement to racial hatred, prostitution, paedophilia, or for offensive, obscene, abusive, menacing, defamatory or insulting behaviour;
Not to interfere with other System users’ work, corrupt their data or invade their privacy;
Not to use another System user’s account, nor to let other people use your account to use the System, except by agreement with us;
To comply with the JISC Acceptable Use Policy, BrICS Acceptable Use Policy, JANET Acceptable Use Policy, JANET Network Connection Policy and the JISC Security Policy;
To keep your passwords confidential, and to inform us if someone else learns any of them or if you become aware that the security of the System is compromised in any way;
To ensure that any sub-accounts created by you or in respect of your Research Project shall be managed, and that they only access and use the System, in accordance with these Access Terms including but not limited to the Artificial Intelligence and National Security section below. You are responsible and liable for any acts or omissions undertaken under your sub-accounts;
You may only create sub-accounts in respect of users being employees of institutions, or other legal entities, named alongside you on a UKRI grant award for the Research Project;
To at all times, where relevant, comply with the EU AI Act, any UK laws directed to artificial intelligence, and all guidance and secondary legislation under them. We will endeavour to make available to you relevant information about the System’s capabilities and features, to assist you in meeting your compliance obligations under those laws. To be clear: we will not be responsible for ensuring that your use of the System complies with those laws, and we will not be liable for any failure by you to comply with those laws;
To reasonably cooperate with us in providing relevant information about your use of the System (including your Material) to the extent that we are required to provide the same to UKRI or any UK governmental or judicial authority. You will provide information related to your Material as reasonably requested by us to verify your compliance with these terms. You will reasonably cooperate with us to identify the source of any problem with the System that we reasonably believe may be attributable to your Material;
You are responsible for properly configuring and using your access to the System and otherwise taking appropriate action to secure and protect your accounts and your Material in a manner that will provide appropriate security and protection.

Data Protection and Intellectual Property¶

Not to infringe copyright or other intellectual property rights or any duty of confidentiality;
Not to take data from any database or dataset without the explicit or implied permission of its owner and thereafter to only use in accordance with its permissions and consents;
Any personal data (as defined under applicable data protection laws) in your Material will be processed in accordance with the Data Processing Terms in Schedule 2 and you hereby agree to these terms as being supplemental to and part of these Access Terms;
Not to use any of our logos (applicable to the University of Bristol, or the System) in any press release or any other promotional purpose, without first obtaining our written consent;
If you suggest to us any improvements to the System, we will be entitled to implement or use those suggestions without restriction, and to authorise others to do the same.

End User Licence Terms; Software Licence¶

You must comply with any special conditions that may apply to particular software packages, that you install, and you confirm (or in legal speak warrant) that those conditions shall not conflict with these Access Terms (including the terms set out in Schedule 3).
Subject to compliance with these Access Terms, we grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicenseable licence to use any software of which a copy is provided to you by us in relation to the System. To the extent that such software comprises the software referenced in the Distributed Code Licence Terms set out in Schedule 3, such licence shall be subject to those Distributed Code Licence Terms. In respect of any other such software, use of the same is permitted solely for the purposes and agreed duration of your use of the System solely in relation to your Research Project. All rights, title, interest to that software remains exclusive property of University of Bristol or its licensors.
You must not reverse engineer, copy, licence or distribute to any person any software existing as part of the System, except to the extent explicitly permitted in any open source software licence applicable to any such software.
You must notify us promptly, implement any measures which may be reasonably practical and which are within your control to mitigate, and reduce any adverse impact on us or our software licensors, if, at any time, you know of or suspect any breach of these Access Terms in respect of any software comprised in the System, or any unauthorised use of any intellectual property rights by you or on your accounts or your sub-accounts.
You must at all times refrain from any act or omission which could result in us being in breach of the End User Licence Terms set out in Schedule 3 or any act or omission which, if committed by us, would be a breach of those End User Licence Terms.

Subsidy Control and Commercial Use¶

You must comply with the Subsidy Control Act 2022 and all results must be freely made available for wider societal benefit in accordance with RGC 2.3 and 14 of the Grant Terms set out in Schedule 1;
To not use the System for any commercial use.

Artificial Intelligence and National Security¶

You will be wholly responsible for compliance with the US and UK Export Control, National Security and Investment Act 2021 as well compliance with the Trusted Research Principles in relation any output of your Research Project as well as any persons who are given access to the System.
You will run any artificial intelligence in accordance with any governmental guidance, regulations and/or law, further details of which can be found at the Office for AI.
We shall rely on (or in legal speak ‘you shall warrant’) the accuracy of your responses in any due diligence assessment undertaken in respect of you or the Research Project and you shall only send and receive data from the locations detailed in the assessment and which have been approved by the University of Bristol and/or UKRI.
You must not access the System in such a way as to breach US and/or UK Export Control or the National Security and Investment Act 2021 (please note that this is especially important where the System is being accessed outside of the UK).
You must not use the System for work above the classification level of OFFICIAL; it may be used for OFFICIAL SENSITIVE so long as adequate controls are in place to protect confidentiality.

Grant Flow Down¶

You will not commit any act or omission which would directly or indirectly result in our being in breach of the UKRI Grant Terms for the System as excerpted in Schedule 1 (including the Access Principles appended to it).

We agree¶

As far as we reasonably can, to provide access to the System as described on this website as updated from time to time, it being understood that there will be times when the System is unavailable, for example as a result of unexpected failures, maintenance work or upgrades. We may change or discontinue any of the features or functions of the System from time to time, if the discontinuation is necessary to (a) address an emergency, or risk of harm to the System, us or any user, (b) respond to claims, litigation, or loss of license rights related to third party intellectual property rights, or (c) comply with law or the requirements of any governmental or judicial authority. We will provide you with as much prior notice as is reasonably practicable under the circumstances;
To take reasonable steps to protect your Material from being lost or corrupted. However, no backups are performed on the user data areas of the System and you are responsible for ensuring all Material stored can be recovered from your own backup or regenerated in the event of a failure;
To protect the security and privacy of the personal data we hold about you, as described in our Data Privacy Policy;
That we will acquire no intellectual property rights over your Material;
To respond promptly to any complaints or suggestions you make about the System;
To comply with the Data Processing Terms in Schedule 2.

You accept¶

That the System is provided “as is” and we can’t guarantee 100% perfection. In legal terms, this means that we are excluding all warranties and conditions applying to the System, including those implied by law. We do not claim or guarantee any level of performance or continued availability or uptime of the System. We are not liable if things go wrong with the System and you suffer damage as a result, although if our negligence results in anyone’s death or personal injury we do not limit or exclude our liability for the System, its functionality as well as any outputs;
That you are responsible for your use of any advice or information we may give you. We will take reasonable steps to ensure that it’s accurate, but we can’t guarantee this. In legal terms, this means that we expressly disclaim any and all liability for all representations, statements, conditions or warranties to that or any other effect except to the extent that such liability may not be lawfully excluded;
That we may from time to time make changes, disrupt or turn off the System;
That we will be entitled to administer the System in accordance with our Resource Management Model;
That we will use the personal details which you supply to us, together with records of your use of the System, as described in our Data Privacy Policy.
That we may suspend your access to the System and discuss this with the Principal Investigator or leader of your Research Project if it seems to us and/or UKRI that you are breaking these Access Terms; that if it is necessary to protect our legitimate interests, the System or other users’ work or data, we can halt the execution of any program which you start or halt or limit the transfer rate of any data transfers that you may undertake; and that we have the right to terminate access to the System and/or close your accounts if we reasonably determine that you or your users have committed a material breach of your obligations under these Access Terms, or your use of the System poses a security risk to the System or any third party, or could adversely impact the System or the Material of any other user of the System;
You are responsible for all activities that occur under your account, regardless of whether the activities are authorised by you or undertaken by you, your employees or a third party, and we are not responsible for unauthorised access to your account. You are responsible for all your users’ use of your Material and the System, and for their compliance with your obligations under these Access Terms;
That you will acquire no intellectual property rights over the System, or software or any information we provide;
That the use of the System by nationals of certain countries is controlled by special regulations laid down by the UK Government and regulatory obligations under the UK Sanctions List, US Export Control regime, and research security principles that we are obliged to consider at all times (which includes but is not limited to the Wassenaar Arrangement);
We may share details of your Research Project or Materials, with UKRI or as required by any UK government or judicial authority;
If, acting in good faith, we consider it reasonable at any time to make changes to these Access Terms (for example, to accommodate or adapt to technical, legal or regulatory changes relevant to the System) we may from time to time make changes to these Access Terms (including the Schedules), and, once we have posted those changes on our website at https://docs.isambard.ac.uk/policies/access_terms/, the new version of the Access Terms will then apply to you. We will notify you in advance of any material changes to these Access Terms. Your access and continued use of the System shall constitute acceptance of any such changes.

LIABILITY¶

YOUR ATTENTION IS DRAWN IN PARTICULAR TO THIS SECTION

By using the System you agree that:

We shall (to the maximum extent permitted by law) have no liability for:
1. any loss of, or corruption or damage to, any Material; or
2. any loss or damage to users or to third parties, or their equipment, operating systems or other assets, in either case resulting from use of the System, or any withdrawal of either the System, or your use of it.
We are not liable for any consequences arising from the unavailability of the System, no matter how caused.
The aggregate liability of the University of Bristol under or in connection with these Access Terms or otherwise in connection with our provision of, and your use of, the System (regardless of whether such liability arises in tort, contract or in any other way and whether or not caused by negligence or misrepresentation) will not exceed: (i) in respect of any liability arising under the Data Processing Terms, the limit of liability specified in those Data Processing Terms; and (ii) in all other cases, the sum of £1,000 (one thousand pounds).
To the fullest extent permitted by law, we shall not be liable for any of the following (whether direct or indirect): loss of revenue, loss of profit, or loss of business; loss of or damage to Material; loss of use; loss of savings; harm to reputation or goodwill; or wasted expenditure.
We have the right to take legal action against you if we suffer loss or damage (including damage to our reputation) as a result of your breach of these Access Terms, and to seek reimbursement of such loss, and/or any associated costs (including the costs of legal proceedings) arising from such a breach.
You are responsible for what you do when using the System. If you break the law or any obligation or duty, you must answer for it, and if you cause damage to anyone else, you are liable, not us. You will ensure that your use of the System is in accordance with all applicable legal and regulatory requirements. These include relevant provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation, the Data Protection Act 2018, the Bribery Act 2010, the Fraud Act 2006, the Equality Act 2010, the Modern Slavery Act 2015, the Public Contract Regulations 2015 including all or any relevant Government procurement notices or controls, the Trusted Research and Innovation Principles, the National Security and Investment (NSI) Act 2021, Subsidy Control Act 2022 and all relevant UK and US export controls.
Nothing in these Access Terms shall limit our liability in any way in respect of any liability which cannot be excluded or limited by applicable law.

INDEMNITY¶

You will indemnify us from and against any liability and associated costs arising out of or relating to any third-party claim concerning: (a) your use of the System (including any activities under your account or sub-accounts); (b) breach of these Access Terms or of applicable law by you or your Material; or (c) a dispute between you and any other user of the System. We will use reasonable endeavours to mitigate any such losses.

These Access Terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. The courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute or claim arising out of, or in connection with, these Access Terms or their subject matter (including non-contractual disputes or claims). If you have any questions about these Access Terms, please send an email to Isambard Support.