This is a copy of the confidentiality agreement which all reviewers have to sign before accessing the proposals assigned to them. It is presented here only for illustration purposes.

Confidentiality Agreement for the Review of ESO Observing Proposals

In accordance with the VLT/VLTI Science Operations Policy (Section 3.3) and the Terms of Reference and Rules of Procedure of the ESO Observing Programmes Committee (Section 8 and Attachment II)[*], I acknowledge that in preparation to and during my service in the ESO OPC, in the ESO OPC Expert Panels and/or in the Distributed Peer Review (DPR), in my capacity as a reviewer, I may be provided with or be given access to confidential information which may be supplied directly in tangible or intangible form (including any electronic form), verbally or by demonstration and which may be the property of ESO or of a third party and which may contain unpublished research and/or proprietary information (‘the Confidential Information’).

I understand that for the use of this Confidentiality Agreement (“Agreement”) Confidential Information shall mean any data, information or knowledge of financial, personal, commercial, scientific or technical nature, which I receive for the Permitted Purpose, as defined below.

I further acknowledge that the Confidential Information will be made available for the sole purpose of carrying out my duties as a reviewer in accordance with the above-mentioned applicable sections of the VLT/VLTI Science Operations Policy document and the Terms of Reference and Rules of Procedure of the ESO Observing Programmes Committee ,(‘the Permitted Purpose’) and that no other use of it shall be allowed.

I HEREBY AGREE:

• to use the Confidential Information only for the Permitted Purpose;
• to keep the Confidential Information in strict confidence and to not disclose it to any third party (including to any persons or party at my employer, including research colleagues, graduate students, post-doctoral or research associates) without the prior written consent of ESO;
• not to use any automated processing methods, including machine learning algorithms, neural networks, or artificial intelligence ("AI") systems, to process, analyse, or interpret the Confidential Information without the prior express written consent of ESO. This restriction applies to all AI-enabled tools and services, whether internal or provided by third parties;
• upon written request of ESO to promptly return any Confidential Information in my possession.

Specifically, I hereby commit not to:

- Input Confidential Information into any AI language model or machine learning algorithm;

- Use the Confidential Information to train or refine AI systems, including both supervised and unsupervised learning algorithms;

- Extract, infer, or generate new information, insights, or patterns from Confidential Information through automated processing.

I understand that this Agreement does not apply to any item of Confidential Information, which is disclosed to me by any third party without breach of the present Agreement, or which comes into the public domain through no fault of mine but that otherwise this Agreement will continue in force without limit of time. ESO may release me in writing from the Agreement.

I further acknowledge that ESO will process my personal data exclusively for the execution of the present Agreement and in accordance with the ESO Personal Data Protection Policy.

Failing an amicable settlement, any dispute arising out of or relating to this Agreement shall be settled according to Section VIII of the ESO General Conditions of ESO Contracts (July 2024), published on the ESO website.

By ticking this “I ACCEPT” checkbox, I acknowledge that this action is equivalent to my signature, confirming that I have read, understood, and agree to comply with the confidentiality requirements set forth above.

[*] Approved by ESO Council on 10.06.2020 and 04.12.2013, respectively.