Share Your Public Data

We recommend using either Zenodo or the AWS Open Data Registry to make your training data publicly available to participants.

Zenodo

Zenodo is an open-source platform that:

  • Promotes Open Science
  • Is free to use
  • Assigns a DOI to every dataset (improving traceability)

However, note the 50 GB size limit per repository.

👉 Add your dataset to our Grand Challenge Zenodo Community if you use this platform.


AWS Open Data Registry

An alternative option is the AWS Open Data Registry, which offers:

  • No size restrictions like Zenodo
  • Direct access via AWS S3
  • Free data downloads

📝 Note: Applications are reviewed quarterly, so submit early.

To add your dataset, follow the instructions on GitHub.


Choosing a Data License

Lastly, it's important to select a suitable license for the public training dataset used in your challenge. We recommend using a permissive Creative Commons (CC) license to ensure that participants can freely access and use the data for training and evaluation.

We prefer the CC BY license, which:

  • Allows others to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the data — even commercially
  • Requires only that they give appropriate credit
  • Maximizes usability and reduces ambiguity for participants

This license strikes the best balance between openness and attribution and ensures that participation in your challenge remains straightforward and unrestricted.

⚠️ Avoid: CC BY-NC-ND

We advise against using restrictive licenses such as CC BY-NC-ND, which:

  • Prohibits commercial use
  • Disallows distribution of adapted or modified versions of the data

These restrictions may create legal uncertainty for participants. For example, the model weights generated during training might be interpreted as a derivative of the dataset. Under a CC BY-NC-ND license, sharing or publishing such models could be considered a violation, effectively preventing participants from training and submitting models — which defeats the purpose of the challenge.

💬 Need Help Deciding?

If using a CC BY license is not possible for your dataset, or if you would like to discuss licensing options, we are happy to assist. Please contact us at:

📧 support@grand-challenge.org

⚠️ Important: Your test data must be uploaded to Grand Challenge and should not be shared publicly.