BRISK2 Privacy Policy

At BRISK2, we’re committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Policy explains when and why we collect personal information about people who visit our website, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure.

We may change this Policy from time to time so please check this page occasionally to ensure that you are happy with any changes. By using our website, you are agreeing to be bound by this Policy.

Any questions regarding this Policy and our privacy practices should be sent by email to brisk2@aston.ac.uk or by writing to European Bioenergy Research Institute, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, B4 7ET, United Kingdom. Alternatively, you can telephone +44 121 204 4629

Who we are

BRISK2 is a consortium of fifteen project partners, funded by EU Horizon 2020 under grant agreement number 731101. BRISK2 refers to the project acronym Biofuels Research Infrastructure for Sharing Knowledge, which is a research and development project looking to support transnational access to biofuels research facilities and advance biofuels knowledge in pursuit of a sustainable energy future.

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

We collect your email address, name, age, gender (if required by EU law) when you complete a form on our site. We collect this data to:

  • Process Transnational Access applications 
  • Contact you regarding queries you have raised on the forms you complete on this site;
  • Progress any enquiries or registrations that you have submitted and send you information directly related to this;
  • Seek your views or comments on the services we provide;
  • Notify you of changes to our services;
  • Send you communications which you have requested and that may be of interest to you, primarily the BRISK2 newsletter, which is released at 6 monthly intervals.
  • Process a summer school or workshop application.

Contact forms

Our contact forms collect your first name, last name, email address, organisation, role, your bioenergy research activity and if you are registering for a BRISK2 open access course, our forms will ask if you have any dietary requirements. We also collect optional gender information for diversity monitoring, which is reported anonymously to BRISK2’s funding organisation, Horizon 2020. 

Cookies

Like many other websites, the BRISK2 website uses cookies. ‘Cookies’ are small pieces of information sent by an organisation to your computer and stored on your hard drive to allow that website to recognise you when you visit. They collect statistical data about your browsing actions and patterns and do not identify you as an individual. For example, we use cookies to store your country preference. This helps us to improve our website and deliver a better more personalised service.

It is possible to switch off cookies through the settings in your browser preferences. Turning cookies off may result in a loss of functionality when using our website.

Main Cookies used on our site: Google Analytics

These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our site. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited. For more information on Google Analytics’ privacy policy visit here.

Data Security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data only to our employees, agents, contractors and third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

Embedded content from other websites

BRISK2 embeds content from our Twitter page. Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Links to other sites

Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations. This privacy policy applies only to our website‚ so we encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites you visit. We cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other sites even if you access them using links from our website.

In addition, if you linked to our website from a third party site, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners and operators of that third party site and recommend that you check the policy of that third party site.

Analytics

We use Google Analytics to find out about our users and tailor the best content to them respectively. The data we collect includes country, language, device, IP address, city and region.

Who we share your data with

We will not sell or rent your information to third parties or share your information for marketing purposes.

We may pass your information to our BRISK2 EU partners for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf (for example to contact you about your application).

However, we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service and we have a contract in place that requires them to keep your information secure and not to use it for their own direct marketing purposes. Please be reassured that we will not release your information to any third parties beyond the company for them to use for their own direct marketing purposes, unless you have requested us to do so, or we are required to do so by law, for example, by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime.

We may transfer your personal information to a third party if we’re under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation or to enforce or apply our terms of use or to protect the rights, property or safety of our supporters and customers. However, we will take steps with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected.

How long we retain your data

We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis. We are legally required to hold some types of information to fulfil our statutory obligations. We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant activity, or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with us.

What rights you have over your data

Your choices

You have a choice about whether or not you wish to receive information from us. If you do not want to receive direct marketing communications from us then you can opt out. For more information and to amend your consents, email brisk2@aston.ac.uk

We will not contact you for marketing purposes by email, phone or text message unless you have given your prior consent.

Your legal rights

Under certain circumstances, you have the following rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data:

  1. Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
  2. Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
  3. Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
  4. Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
  5. Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
  6. Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
  7. Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

You can change your marketing preferences at any time by contacting us by email (brisk2@aston.ac.uk) or telephone on +44 121 204 4629 or write to us at European Bioenergy Research Institute, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, B4 7ET, United Kingdom.

How you can access and update your information

The accuracy of your information is important to us. You have the right to request a copy of the information we hold about you so that you can ensure its accuracy. You can do this by contacting us by email or telephone.

Right to Erasure

GDPR introduces a right for individuals to have personal data erased. The right to erasure is also known as ‘the right to be forgotten’. Visitors/users of this site have the ability to have a copy of all records of their personal data and to ask for such data to be erased.

You can ask for a copy of your data and ask for erasure by contacting us by email or telephone. We will ask for proof of identity before any data can be shared or erased. We will respond to any requests for erasure within one month of receipt of the request.

Our contact information

Email: brisk2@aston.ac.uk

Telephone:  +44 121 204 4629

Write to us at European Bioenergy Research Institute, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, B4 7ET, United Kingdom.

Additional information

Review of this Policy

We keep this Policy under regular review. This Policy was last updated in December 2018.