Data Protection

In accordance with European directives and with French Law No. 78-17 of January 1978 on information processing, electronic files and civil liberties, the web site and database of the European Science Foundation (ESF) have been declared at the Commission National de l'Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL), which is the independent French administrative authority protecting privacy and personal data. Within this framework all persons registered in the database have a right to access and update the personal information about them and to ask for such information to be modified, deleted etc.

Direct access to the information stored in our database is restricted to members of ESF and COST staff working in our offices in Strasbourg and Brussels. The data will, under no circumstances, be used for commercial purposes.

The database is used as an address book for ESF and COST staff and is also used as a tool for the management of our activities. In this framework we record information on the following:

ESF and COST Committee Membership
ESF meeting participants
ESF Grantees
ESF Grant Hosts
Proposals (Exploratory Workshop, Network, Progamme, EUROCORES, EURYI, ESF Research Conferences, COST Actions)
Review Procedures including information on (potential) referees

The information we collect is also used to compile statistics for our Member Organisations and, where relevant, for other organisations who provide funding to ESF e.g. the European Commission for EUROCORES.

Where ESF contracts an independent body to carry out a study on its behalf the ESF Secretariat may provide scientific and financial data on its activities, which may include the names and contact details of persons involved in the activities etc. In such cases however the organisation carrying out the study undertakes, in writing, to treate all data they receive from ESF in confidence and to use it only for the purposes of the study for which they have been contracted.

For more information, please contact database[at]esf.org.

Some examples of the recipients of data collected by ESF are as follows

Categories of Information	Recipients
Address lists of committees	- ESF Member Organisations & Statutory Bodies - ESF Web Site* - ESF Publications e.g. annual report, About the ESF - Each member of a committee receives a list of the members of that committee
Address lists of meeting participants	- ESF Member Organisations & Statutory Bodies - ESF Web Site* - Committee responsible for the relevant activity e.g. Programme Steering Committee - Each meeting participant receives a list of participants of that meeting
Application and proposal data, including addresses of applicants	- ESF Member Organisations & Statutory Bodies - ESF Committee responsible for recommendation on/allocation of funding e.g. Review Panel - Independent referees#
Evaluation data, including name and full address of referee	- ESF Member Organisations & Statutory Bodies - ESF Committee responsible for recommendation on/allocation of funding e.g. Review Panel
Evaluation data, without name and address of referee	- Applicant
List of referees (name and affiliation), unallocated to applications/proposals	- ESF Web Site
List of applications/proposals funded, including information on persons involved	- ESF Member Organisations & Statutory Bodies - ESF Web Site
Subsequent reports	- ESF Member Organisations & Statutory Bodies - ESFCommittee responsible for activity/evaluation of reports - Independent referees#

Others

Our Member Organisations and other national, European or international organisations somtimes ask us to help them identify persons to help them with a particicular project such as the evaluation of scientific projects at a national level, the evaluation of the functioning of an institute, or other types of scientific evaluations. In such cases we may provide them with names and addresses of persons within certain fields of scientific expertise. The provision of such information is not systematic and is agreed on a case by case basis.

Where relevant, certain categories of information may be given to the European Commission.

* Please note that we are not responsible for the data which is put on external ESF activity web sites.

# Referees are systematically informed that the information contained in the application/proposal/report, including the personal data of the persons involved, should not be used for any purpose other than the assessment/evaluation.