Narratory Platform
Terms of Service

Effective Date: July 15, 2026 (v1.1)

1. Acceptance of Terms

By creating a Narratory account or accessing any service on the Narratory platform (collectively referred to as the "Platform"), you agree to comply with and be bound by these Terms of Service. The Platform currently includes the following services:

If you do not agree with any part of these terms, you must not use the Platform or any of its services. By using the Platform, you agree to these policies, regardless of your location.

You must be at least 18 years of age to use the Platform. By agreeing to these Terms, you represent and warrant that you are at least 18 years of age.

2. Use of Services

The Platform provides tools for communication, collaboration, and coordination:

All users accessing the Platform will use its services responsibly, ethically, and professionally, and solely for their intended purposes.

3. Restrictions on Use

You agree not to, and not to permit others to, directly or indirectly: (a) resell, sublicense, lease, rent, or otherwise transfer your rights to use the Platform to any third party; (b) reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise attempt to discover the source code, object code, or underlying structure of the Platform; or (c) use the Platform to develop a product or service that competes with the Platform.

4. User Representation and Responsibility

If you are using the Platform on behalf of an organization (such as a university, hospital, institute, committee, society, or other group), you confirm that you are rightfully able to act on behalf of that organization and have the necessary authority to represent them and agree to these Terms of Service on their behalf.

You are solely responsible for:

4a. Additional Responsibilities for Collate Users

If you use Collate, you are additionally responsible for your obligations in relationship to individual researchers whose ORCID IDs you add to the system. Where applicable and where mandated by institutional policies and directives, you represent and warrant that you have obtained any and all necessary permissions and consents from individual researchers to use their ORCID IDs and associated public ORCID data within the Service for the purpose of generating and distributing communications.

4b. Additional Responsibilities for Convene Users

If you use Convene, you are additionally responsible for the accuracy of member information you add to the system, including email addresses. Where applicable and where mandated by organizational policies, you represent and warrant that you have obtained any and all necessary permissions and consents from individuals to add them as members and send them event-related communications via the Service.

4c. Additional Responsibilities for Cohost Users

If you use Cohost, you represent and warrant that, for every recording, video, or reference document you upload, you have obtained all rights, permissions, and consents necessary to (a) record the people whose voices, likenesses, or personal information appear in it; (b) have that material processed by the Service, including transcription, speaker identification, and other AI processing; and (c) publicly distribute the resulting episodes. This includes consent obligations under recording and privacy laws applicable to you and your participants. You further represent and warrant that you hold the necessary rights to any music, archival audio, or other third-party material contained in your uploads. You are solely responsible for complying with any legal or platform obligations to disclose the use of synthetic (AI-generated) voices or music in content you publish.

4d. Additional Responsibilities for Confer Users

If you use Confer as a presentation or session owner, you are responsible for the content of your sessions, including deciding which participant contributions are displayed. Live contributions from participants are not pre-screened by the Platform; moderation of a session is the session owner's responsibility. Where you invite participants or share session links, you are responsible for doing so in accordance with your organization's policies.

4e. Additional Responsibilities for Commons Users

If you use Commons, you agree that sources you add for monitoring will be publicly accessible pages, feeds, or APIs that do not require credentials to view, and that your submissions will not include personal, confidential, or proprietary information. You acknowledge that contributed sources become part of a shared registry monitored on behalf of all Commons users and visible to them. For notification recipients you add, you represent and warrant that you have a reasonable basis to believe they wish to receive funding digests; all recipients other than yourself must additionally confirm by email before delivery begins.

5. User Content

Users accessing the Platform may submit content, such as information about research units, group descriptions, event details, submissions, and associated media (e.g., logos or images), to be displayed or used within the Platform. Users are solely responsible for the accuracy and legality of all such submitted content. Users retain ownership of any content they upload to the Platform and grant the Platform a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, display, and distribute such content solely for the purpose of operating, improving, and promoting the Platform as intended.

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Narratory and its affiliates, officers, and employees from and against any and all claims, liabilities, damages, and costs (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or in any way connected with: (a) your access to or use of the Platform; (b) any content you submit to the Platform, including any claim that your content infringes on the intellectual property or other rights of a third party; or (c) your violation of these Terms of Service.

6. Intellectual Property

All content and materials on the Platform, including but not limited to text, graphics, and logos (excluding user-uploaded content and AI-generated content), are the property of Narratory or its licensors and are protected by intellectual property laws.

7. AI-Generated Content

7a. Accuracy and Limitations

The Platform uses AI to generate content across its services, including research newsletters, digital media, event agendas, follow-up summaries, podcast transcripts, episode scripts and audio, and structured funding-opportunity details extracted from public web pages. While the Platform takes significant effort to ground AI-generated content in trusted and authenticated data, users acknowledge that Narratory and its affiliates bear no liability for inaccuracies or errors in AI-generated content. The Platform is not ultimately responsible for the accuracy of the communications, newsletters, summaries, agendas, transcripts, episodes, extracted funding details, or digital media that it creates. AI-assisted transcription and extraction can mis-hear names, mis-read dates, or omit information; review AI-generated output before relying on or publishing it.

7b. Copyright of AI-Generated Content

The legal status of AI-generated content and its copyright ownership is still developing. Where it is applicable by law to own or have copyright for AI-generated content, the user (as the creator/controller of the input) shall own that copyright. The Platform makes no assertion of ownership over the copyright of any AI-generated content created based upon the user inputs to the system. Users are responsible for ensuring their use of AI-generated content respects copyright laws and agree to indemnify Narratory against any claims of infringement.

8. Collate-Specific Terms

The following terms apply specifically to the use of Collate by Narratory.

8a. Commitment to Open Science

Collate is designed around a commitment to supporting open science principles and making research data broadly available. We prioritize open and transparent practices to facilitate science communication and knowledge mobilization, dissemination, translation, utilization, and exchange. Collate relies on open science resources, using publicly available data, machine readable scientific knowledge graphs, and accessible metadata to drive the platform. In this spirit, we encourage all users to embrace and align with these principles to foster a collaborative and open research ecosystem.

8b. Promotional Use of Generated Content

In alignment with our commitment to open science and knowledge mobilization, Collate reserves the right to publicly showcase, share, and promote the content it generates on behalf of users. This may be done for the dual purpose of showcasing the capabilities of the Service and championing our users' research. By default, this may include the use of your institution's name and logo. If you do not wish for your institution's branded content to be used in this manner, you may opt out at any time by contacting us at narratory.com/contact.

9. Cohost-Specific Terms

The following terms apply specifically to the use of Cohost by Narratory.

9a. You Are the Publisher

Cohost is a production tool. You (or the organization you represent) are the publisher of record for every episode you distribute. Narratory does not review, endorse, or assume editorial responsibility for the content of your episodes. You are solely responsible for the content you publish and for its compliance with applicable law, including defamation, privacy, and intellectual property law.

9b. Synthetic Media

Episodes produced with Cohost's generative features may contain AI-generated (synthetic) voices and music. Synthetic voices are generated from configured voice profiles; you must not configure the Service to imitate the voice of a real, identifiable person without that person's documented consent. You are responsible for complying with any disclosure obligations regarding synthetic media that apply in your jurisdiction or on the platforms where you distribute.

9c. Third-Party Distribution

Distribution surfaces such as podcast directories and video platforms are operated by third parties under their own terms, which apply to you directly as the publisher. Narratory is not responsible for the availability, ranking, moderation decisions, or content policies of any third-party distribution platform.

10. Confer-Specific Terms

The following terms apply specifically to the use of Confer by Narratory.

Live sessions may accept real-time contributions from participants, including participants who do not hold Narratory accounts. Participant contributions are the responsibility of the person who submits them, and the decision to display them within a session is the responsibility of the session owner; the Platform does not pre-screen live contributions. Anyone contributing to a session — with or without an account — agrees to use the Service lawfully and respectfully, and the Platform may remove content or restrict access at its discretion (see Account Termination below). Session capacity, availability, and real-time delivery are provided on a best-effort basis; Narratory is not liable for interruptions to live sessions.

11. Commons-Specific Terms

The following terms apply specifically to the use of Commons by Narratory.

11a. Informational Purposes Only — Always Verify with the Funder

Commons compiles funding-opportunity information (funders, programs, competitions, deadlines, eligibility indications) automatically from publicly available sources, including by AI-assisted extraction. This information is provided for discovery and awareness purposes only. It may be incomplete, inaccurate, or out of date, and it does not constitute professional, legal, or grant-application advice. The funder's own page is the sole authority: you must verify all deadlines, eligibility requirements, and application details directly with the funder before taking any action. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Narratory bears no liability for any loss arising from reliance on information displayed or delivered by Commons, including without limitation missed deadlines, forgone funding opportunities, applications submitted to competitions for which you were ineligible, or opportunities that Commons failed to surface.

11b. No Guarantee of Coverage

Commons monitors the sources contributed to it on a best-effort basis. Third-party websites change structure, move, restrict automated access, or become unavailable, and monitoring of any given source may be delayed or interrupted as a result. Narratory does not warrant that Commons will detect every funding opportunity, every change to an opportunity, or any opportunity within any particular timeframe.

11c. The Shared Commons

Commons is a shared service: sources you contribute are added to a common registry, monitored once on behalf of all users, and visible to other users, and the compiled funding-opportunity store is readable by all authenticated Commons users. Do not submit sources you are not comfortable sharing. Compiled funding data exported from Commons identifies opportunities by their public facets and canonical links; you may use exports for your organization's internal research-administration purposes, but you may not resell the compiled store or represent it as your own or as authoritative.

11d. Third-Party Content and Attribution

All funding-opportunity information belongs to the respective funders and publishers; Commons links to their pages rather than reproducing them. This product uses the Grants.gov API but is not endorsed or certified by Grants.gov. No funder or database operator referenced within Commons sponsors, endorses, or is affiliated with Narratory.

12. Limitation of Liability

The Platform is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. We make no warranties or representations, express or implied, about the accuracy, reliability, or availability of the Platform. The Platform shall not be liable for any losses or damages resulting from the temporary or permanent unavailability. The Platform shall not be liable for any losses or damages resulting from the potential implementation of subscription fees for the Platform in the future.

The Platform's performance is dependent on third-party services, including but not limited to hosting providers, AI subprocessors, and other vendors (collectively, "Third-Party Providers"; see our current subprocessors list). We will exercise reasonable care in the selection of our Third-Party Providers, but we do not control their operations. Therefore, to the fullest extent permitted by law, Narratory disclaims all liability and shall not be held responsible for any damages, losses, or security breaches arising from the acts, omissions, or failures of any Third-Party Provider. This includes, but is not limited to, service interruptions, data loss, security incidents, or any inaccuracies, errors, or omissions in the data and content generated or supplied by such Third-Party Providers.

The Platform relies on data provided by third-party sources, including but not limited to APIs, scientific knowledge graphs, government grant databases, and funders' public web pages. We do not verify and cannot guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of data provided by external sources. We disclaim all liability for any errors or omissions in the Platform's output that originate from inaccuracies in third-party source data.

13. Fees and Subscriptions

Currently, the Platform is offered free of charge. We reserve the right to introduce subscription fees for individual services in the future. Users will be notified of any such changes with ample advance notice.

14. Account Termination

Narratory reserves the right to suspend or terminate any user account at its sole discretion, including but not limited to instances of violation of these Terms of Service or misuse of the Platform, whether or not the misuse is herein specifically defined. Misuse includes, but is not limited to, attempts to hack the Platform, upload viruses or malicious code, engage in spamming, or otherwise be non-compliant with applicable regulations.

15. Email Communication Compliance

Users shall not use the Platform in such a way that contravenes applicable national and international email marketing regulations, including, but not limited to, Canada's anti-spam legislation (CASL), the CAN-SPAM Act for U.S. recipients, and other international policies where relevant. For Collate users, adherence to these policies includes providing a true and accurate physical mailing address in the footers of emails, a legitimate public-facing email address, and abiding by all regulations regarding subscriber acquisition and opt-out mechanisms. Across all services that send email on your behalf — including Convene event communications and Commons funding digests — you remain responsible for the lawful basis on which recipients were added, even where the Platform additionally requires recipient confirmation. Any use of the Platform that circumvents these policies will not be tolerated.

16. Dispute Resolution

If a dispute arises between you and the Platform, both parties agree to first attempt to resolve it through direct communication. If direct communication does not resolve the issue, the parties agree to explore non-binding mediation or binding arbitration before considering formal legal action.

17. Changes to Terms

We reserve the right to modify or update these terms of use at any time. All notices or announcements about updates to these terms will be emailed to users maintaining accounts on the system. Your continued use of the Platform after receiving notification of changes constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms of Service.

18. Governing Law

These Terms of Service shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Ontario, Canada, without regard to its conflict of law principles. Any disputes arising under or in connection with these terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located in Ontario, Canada.

All documents related to the Platform: