Data collection, storage, protection, retention and destruction

ERIC Forum Implementation Project’s partners are aware of the need to protect the personal data collected during the project, to guarantee the ethics in publishing results and in general to protect the rights of individuals. All the aspects set out below are included in the guidelines published on the website.
The project complies with the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data
 

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Data Controller and Data Processors

IThe project coordinator, BBMRI-ERIC, supervises the ethical issues of the project.
BBMRI-ERIC will act as the Data Controller in the ERIC Forum 2 project. The Work Package leads (Project Partner) take on the role of Data Processors. It will be ensured that the exchange and storage of collected data is GDPR compliant.
The Project Partner is responsible for implementing appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure data security, confidentiality, and compliance with GDPR requirements. The Data Processor must not process the data for any purpose beyond the instructions provided by the Data Controller and must assist the Data Controller in fulfilling data subject rights requests, such as access, rectification, or deletion.
In case of data breaches, the Data Processor must notify the Data Controller of data breaches within 24 hours and cooperate in investigations.
 

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Types of Data Collected

Within the project, the following personal data might be collected: personal information of the project participants and key stakeholders, including name/s, contact details (email address and phone number), affiliations, function within their organisations, interest in the project’s activities.
The ERIC Forum does not collect and/or process personal sensitive data (i.e., ethnicity, political opinions, religion, health, finances, etc.), since obtaining such type of data does not contribute to achieve the project aims and objectives. The consortium treats any personal information connected to the audience response data with a high level of consideration, courtesy, privacy and ethical practice.
In the specific case of social media analysis, the ERIC Forum does not gather private personal information, including personal sensitive data, or using secretive methods to gain access to social media data. The ERIC Forum accesses content that audience members choose to make public, either on the performance groups’ webpages or on Bluesky. In sum, the ERIC Forum is not trying to get information that people are keeping, or trying to keep, private.
 

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Purposes for Data Processing and Legal Bases

Personal data will be collected from project partners and stakeholders to fulfill the objectives of the projects, which are:

1. for conducting interviews and surveys helping understand the working of ERICs and information about ERICs, on the basis of your freely given and informed consent. You have the right to withdraw consent at any time by emailing info@eric-forum.eu or the responsible work package lead;
2. for sending news and updates about the project through our newsletter, on the basis of your freely given and informed consent. You have the right to withdraw consent at any time by emailing info@eric-forum.eu or by unsubscribing directly in the newsletter;
3. for answering the general inquiries addressed to info@eric-forum.eu on the basis of your freely given and informed consent. You have the right to withdraw consent at any time by emailing info@eric-forum.eu;
4. for ensuring the operation of the secretariat of the Executive Board of ERIC Forum and maintain and further develop ERIC Forum Executive Board’s external representation, in particular with the Commission, ESFRI, other EU institutions, and other ERA relevant stakeholders. You have the right to withdraw consent at any time by emailing info@eric-forum.eu;
5. for reinforcing and further developing the outreach of the ERIC Forum community to relevant audiences by supporting common communication and outreach activities, on the basis of our legitimate interest;
6. for compliance with legal obligation and for complying with requests from law enforcement authorities and/or regulatory bodies, on the basis of law provisions.

 

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Data Collection, Storage, Protection, Retention

BBMRI-ERIC centralises data collection and storage during the lifetime of the project. As the project is a Coordination and Support Action, no major ethical issues are foreseen. If any unforeseen ethical issues arise during the project, the coordinator will consult with the ethics specialists within BBMRI-ERIC.
The data will be stored for 5 years after the ending date of the project on the SharePoint environment hosted by BBMRI-ERIC.
Data are stored in BBMRI’s servers according to the security, technical and organizational measures that BBMRI has in place.
The data collected in surveys, questionnaires, interviews etc. will be pseudonymized for upload to SharePoint. Personal data as such are not stored on the SharePoint site but locally by the responsible Project Partner or the responsible Work Package Lead, which will be archiving the identification numbers and inform BBMRI-ERIC as Data Processor of how this data is stored.
Personal data collected as contact lists for ensuring the operation of the secretariat of the Executive Board of ERIC Forum and maintain and further develop ERIC Forum Executive Board’s external representation, as well personal data collected in mailing lists for communication and outreach activities are available on the SharePoint environment hosted by BBMRI-ERIC.
 

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Data Sharing and Transfers

Personal data will be passed on to the Data Processor, strictly for the purposes decided by the Data Controller. Passing on to third parties will only take place if you give your explicit consent or if the data is requested from law enforcement authorities and/or regulatory bodies.
 

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Your Rights

You have the following rights with respect to the personal data concerning you: Right to information, correction, deletion, limitation of processing, objection to processing and the right of data portability. You also have the right to complain to the Austrian data protection authority: Austrian Data Protection Authority, Österreichische Datenschutzbehörde, Barichgasse 40-42, 1030 Vienna, Email: dsb@dsb.gv.at, https://data-protection-authority.gv.at/
 

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Contact

For contacting us you can write to info@eric-forum.eu.