Frequently Asked Questions

CAGE is an open science research platform dedicated to advancing sustainable chemistry. We connect researchers worldwide to collaborate on clean alternatives to toxic industrial chemicals, with 40+ active research tracks spanning coatings, recycling, water treatment, and more.

Click Register in the navigation bar. You will need a corporate or institutional email address. If you are an independent researcher using a personal email, you can request an exception through our access request form. After registration, you will receive a verification email to confirm your address.

The Research Contributor Agreement (NDA) is a legal agreement that protects both you and the platform. It ensures that unpublished research remains confidential, establishes your rights to attribution and revenue sharing, and protects the intellectual property developed by all contributors. You must sign the NDA before accessing research track details.

Identity verification via Stripe ensures that the NDA is legally enforceable and that contributor records are accurate. It also protects the community by confirming that all participants are real people. We do not store your identity documents — Stripe handles verification securely and we only receive a verified/not-verified status.

A research track is a focused investigation into a specific problem in sustainable chemistry. Each track defines a problem statement, hypothesis, experimental approach, and success criteria. Tracks are organized into categories like Coatings, Recycling, Water Treatment, and Agriculture.

Each research track is divided into sequential phases that guide the investigation from initial hypothesis through validation to scale-up. Phases have specific goals, suggested experiments, and verification criteria. Completing a phase means contributing evidence that advances the track toward its overall objective.

Navigate to a track's detail page and click the Subscribe button. Subscribing adds the track to your dashboard and allows you to receive updates on new submissions and phase completions. You can subscribe to as many tracks as you like.

A verification is an independent confirmation of an experimental result. When a researcher claims results for a phase, other community members can submit their own verification attempts — reproducing the experiment and documenting their findings. Verified results strengthen the evidence base and help advance the track.

An experiment is your overall investigation within a specific phase of a track. It defines what you are testing and your approach. A trial is a single execution of that experiment — one attempt with specific conditions, measurements, and outcomes. You can run multiple trials within a single experiment to refine your results.

Navigate to the research track and phase you are working on. Click New Experiment to create your experiment record, then add trials with your detailed observations, measurements, photos, and conclusions. Include as much detail as possible — conditions, equipment, safety notes, and quantitative results.

When you submit a trial, Google's Gemini AI provides an automated scientific review. It evaluates your methodology, identifies potential issues, suggests improvements, and assesses whether the results support or contradict the phase hypothesis. This is meant as a helpful guide — human review by the community and admins is the ultimate authority.

Negative results are valuable scientific data. A failed trial tells us what does not work and narrows the search space for future experiments. Document your failed trials thoroughly — they are just as important as successes and contribute to the overall knowledge base. You will still receive attribution for negative results.

After completing an experiment, you can submit a reimbursement request through the track page. Include receipts, a description of the expenses, and a link to the experiment or trial the expenses relate to. Reimbursements are reviewed and approved by platform administrators.

Qualifying expenses include chemicals and reagents, lab supplies, safety equipment, and specialized tools purchased specifically for your experiments on a CAGE research track. General equipment you already own and personal items are not eligible. When in doubt, ask before purchasing.

Reimbursement requests are typically reviewed within 7 business days. Once approved, payment is processed via Stripe and usually arrives within 5–10 business days depending on your bank and country. You can track the status of your requests on your dashboard.

You can request a full export of your data by contacting us at info@cagechemicals.ca. We will provide your account information, submissions, experiment data, trial records, and uploaded photos in a machine-readable format (JSON) within 30 days.

You can submit a deletion request through the Request Deletion page. This will permanently remove your account, all submissions, experiments, trials, photos, and profile data. Deletion requests are processed within 30 days. Note that NDA records may be retained as required by law.

Yes. All data is encrypted in transit using TLS and stored on Google Cloud Platform with enterprise-grade security. Passwords are hashed with bcrypt, identity verification is handled by Stripe (we never see your documents), and access to research data is gated behind NDA verification. See our Security page and Privacy Policy for full details.