Terms and Conditions of
NGen Membership

Last modified: February 25, 2025

 1.0 NGen membership

Membership with NGen is available to individuals and organizations engaged in all facets of advanced manufacturing. NGen leverages data from members to drive greater collaboration in Canadian advanced manufacturing among companies, researchers, investors, and others.

NGen members are eligible to:

• participate in NGen’s Innovation projects as “Organization” members or as “Individual” members.
• access services that may be developed and provided through NGen’s members-only portal; and
• participate in events, workshops, technology visits and other NGen-led or sponsored activities.

Membership in NGen does not necessarily ensure that:

• member-proposed projects will be eligible for NGen Innovation funding;
• members will gain access to intellectual property; or
• any member will be able to lead or participate in a project

2.0 Definitions
Your access to and use of NGen's websites and services are subject to our Terms of Use. Any capitalized terms used but not defined in this Terms and Conditions of NGen Membership have the meanings provided in our Terms of Use.

Membership Data means the Personal Information and information about your organization that we collect through the Membership Application Form.

Personal information is information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual's identity, either alone or when combined with other information that is linked or linkable to a specific individual.

 3.0 Protecting the Personal Information you Provide to NGen is Important to Us

Your privacy is very important to us, so, along with the NGen's Privacy Policy, we've developed this Terms and Conditions of NGen Membership that covers how we use the data you provide us in the Membership Application.

If you are eligible for membership, on logging into the private members portal for NGen members (the "NGen Member Site"), you will be asked to agree to the Membership Terms and Conditions and NGen's Privacy Policy. By checking the "I Agree" buttons to the NGen Membership Application you signify your assent to the NGen Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions of NGen Membership.

4.0 The Personal Information that we Collect in a Membership Application

When you complete a Membership Application, we collect from you the following Personal Information:

• Your first name;
• Your last name;
• Your email address;
• Your title;
• Your phone number;
• Social media links;
• Your address information.

5.0 How We Use Information We Collect in the Membership Application
 
The information you provide us in the NGen Membership Application, which includes Personal Information is used to:

• determine your eligibility to be an NGen Member and to communicate eligibility status and access to the NGen Member Site.
• connect companies and individuals engaged in Canadian advanced manufacturing, including for NGen projects funded by various funding organizations and initiatives;
• identify gaps and needs in advanced manufacturing to offer services to members, including by conducting project selection and project management; and
• conduct research and analytics to better understand the aggregate strengths and weaknesses of Canadian advanced manufacturing.

We may use your Membership Data to communicate to you in the following ways:

• to respond to your questions and comments;
• to send email notifications and reminders related to the NGen Member Site and NGen's services;
• providing our services and operating the NGen Member Site;
• to send you communications, including newsletters, service announcements, administrative messages, marketing messages or other marketing information;
• for email marketing, retargeting programs and prospecting;
• establishing and maintaining relationships with you;
• conducting investigations, detecting fraud, abuse, security breaches and other harmful activity; and
• meeting and complying with legal and regulatory requirements.

We share some of your membership data to use in Member Services, as set out in section 8 of this Terms and Conditions of NGen Membership.

• "Private" Membership Data cannot be viewed by any other NGen members, except you.
• "Open" Membership Data can be viewed by other NGen members. Certain data is open only for certain functions on our private membership site, which is accessible only by NGen members (the "Membership Site"). See below for details on which Membership Data is open for which functions on the Membership Site.

6.0 How We Secure Your Membership Information

We will not disclose your Membership Data without your consent unless it is in accordance with this Terms and Conditions of NGen Membership, our Privacy Policy or required by any applicable law.

Access to all Membership Data (except publicly available information) is strictly controlled. We have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures in an effort to safeguard and help prevent unauthorized access and to maintain data security.

Information you provide us through the NGen Membership Application is collected securely through SSL-secured connections and protects your information using both server multifactor authentication and data encryption. The NGen Membership Application sits on top of NGen's data platform provider Salesforce and stores and secures the personal information and other data you have provided. Salesforce maintains digital security: 128-bit master keys and use the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm.

Salesforce utilizes Amazon Web Services ("AWS") to host NGen's data in Canada on a Canadian Instance. AWS has a suite of compliance certificates for their data centers, include full SSAE 16 (SOC 1, SOC 2, and SOC 3) compliance. Our instances of Salesforce are hosted in a virtual private cloud, using only data centers located in Canada. Only select Salesforce engineers have access to our production environment. All direct access to our production systems is protected by public key encryption and two-factor authentication.

Salesforce is architected for data security, including the following security features:

• Files that you upload are hosted on the Salesforce storage service. We protect access to download these files through cryptographic signatures, and links are time-limited for extra protection. Private keys are rotated at least annually, and access to private keys is restricted to a subset of Salesforce engineers.
• All database queries and traffic is only routed through SSL-secured connections.
• All technical and software changes go through a rigorous peer-review process and a full suite of technical acceptance tests.
• The Salesforce website is only served over TLS version 1.2 to keep website traffic secure.
• Attempts to log in with incorrect usernames or passwords are rate-limited to greatly reduce the chance of a brute-force break into any account.
• All passwords are not stored in the Salesforce database, instead a one-way hash is computed from the inputted password, which is then encryption before being stored in the database.
• All changes to any customer data are automatically logged. This allows us to identify what data changed, on which date, by whom, and from where.

For further information on the agreement between NGen and Salesforce, you may review Salesforce's relevant policies:

Terms of Service: https://www.salesforce.com/company/legal/sfdc-website-terms-of-service/

Privacy policy: https://www.salesforce.com/company/privacy/full_privacy/

Security page: https://security.salesforce.com/

 7.0 Membership Application Data Retention
If you or your organization are determined by NGen to be ineligible to become a  NGen Member, then you will be notified, and all your member application data will be removed from the platform.

If you or your organization are determined by NGen to be eligible to become a NGen Member, then you will be provided with access to the NGen Member Site and you will be asked to agree to this Terms and Conditions of NGen Membership.

8.0 How your Membership Data is used, if you become a Member

NGen makes Membership Data classified as "open" viewable in the Membership Site, the search function, members digital directory, and matching services. See below for a list of what data elements are open.

Searchable Open Membership Data

The following elements of the Membership Data are viewable as the result of a search.

9.0 How to Contact Us
The full name of NGen is Next Generation Manufacturing Canada and our address is:
#105-175 Longwood Road S 
Hamilton, ON
L8P 0A1

If you have any questions, please email us at info@ngen.ca.