Introduction:
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 Nationale 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.
ESF Direct Activities
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.
To whom do we give the data collected?
Some examples of the recipients of data collected by ESF are as follows
Other ESF Activities
Evaluation
Our Member Organisations and other national, European or international organisations sometimes 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.
Peer Review Services
In the frame of this activity, the data referring to applicants, institutions, proposals and assessments collected is considered confidential. The data will only be shared with the institutions/establishments or organisations which delegate this particular task to us or with whom a contract has been signed and with the experts (external referees and panel members) nominated for the assessment of the proposals.
In order to promote transparency, ESF may publish the aggregate list of referees involved in assessment processes under ESF umbrella, unassigned to applications or specific process. The list, containing only names and short affiliations, may be published on the ESF web site after completion of all assessment processes in a given year.
Individual remote assessments may be copied in anonymous form for evaluation and selection purposes to the Disciplinary Panel(s) set up by ESF for an exercise and may also, always in anonymous form, be used as feedback to applicants.
* 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.
