Data Protection Notice
Everyone has rights with regard to the way in which their personal data is handled. During the
course of our activities, we will collect, store and use personal data in respect of individuals (“data
subjects”) participating in our funding application and award processes. We may also collect,
store and use personal data on individuals who engage with us in relation to our activities. The
Irish Research Council is committed to reflecting best practice in complying with data protection
regulation.
WHO ARE WE? ................................................................................................................................ 2
PURPOSE OF THIS DOCUMENT ....................................................................................................... 2
WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT FROM YOU? ................................................... 2
YOU MAY GIVE US PERSONAL DATA BY: ......................................................................................... 3
WHAT INFORMATION ABOUT YOU DO WE COLLECT FROM OTHERS? ........................................... 3
Personal data on applicants or awardees, supervisors/mentors and referees ...................... 4
Personal data on awardees ..................................................................................................... 4
Other individuals ..................................................................................................................... 4
WHY DO WE COLLECT THIS INFORMATION? .................................................................................. 4
WHAT ARE THE LEGAL BASES FOR THE COLLECTION AND USE OF YOUR DATA? ........................... 5
WHO DO WE SHARE THIS INFORMATION WITH? ........................................................................... 5
HOW LONG DO WE RETAIN YOUR INFORMATION? ....................................................................... 6
DO WE TRANSFER YOUR INFORMATION OUTSIDE THE EUROPEAN UNION OR EUROPEAN
ECONOMIC AREA?........................................................................................................................... 6
DO WE USE AUTOMATED DECISION-MAKING AND PROFILING?.................................................... 7
WHAT ARE YOUR RIGHTS WITH RESPECT TO YOUR PERSONAL DATA? .......................................... 7
WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF WE CHANGE OUR PRIVACY NOTICE? ........................................................ 7
HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US? ........................................................................................................ 7
SCHEDULE 1: Third-party service providers .................................................................................... 8
SCHEDULE 2: Retention policy ........................................................................................................ 8
APPENDIX 1: Data on awards .......................................................................................................... 9
Personal data: ......................................................................................................................... 9
Project data: ............................................................................................................................ 9
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WHO ARE WE?
The Irish Research Council, with an address at 3 Shelbourne Buildings, Crampton Avenue,
Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, is an associated agency of the Department of Further and Higher Education,
Research, Innovation and Science, under the aegis of the Higher Education Authority (HEA), and
has the following mandate:
To fund excellent research within, and between, all disciplines, and in doing so to enhance
Ireland’s international reputation as a centre for research and learning
To support the education and skills development of excellent individual early-stage
researchers and to cultivate agile independent researchers and thinkers, while offering a
range of opportunities which support diverse career paths
To enrich the pool of knowledge and expertise available for addressing Ireland’s current and
future needs, whether societal, cultural or economic, and to deliver for citizens through
collaboration and enabling knowledge exchange with Government departments and
agencies, enterprise and civic society
To provide policy advice on postgraduate education, and on more general research matters,
to the HEA and other national and international bodies. In giving us this role, Government
requested that particular attention be given to the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.
PURPOSE OF THIS DOCUMENT
This notice sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or from others,
will be used by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our practices regarding your
personal data and how we will treat it.
For the purpose of the Data Protection Acts 1988 - 2018 (as amended) and the General Data
Protection Regulation (the GDPR) (the Acts), the Irish Research Council is the data controller in
the performance of its mandate.
The Data Protection Officer (DPO) for the Irish Research Council may be contacted by email at
dataprotection@hea.ie or by other means as specified in the “How can you contact us?” section
below.
WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT FROM YOU?
The types of personal data that we collect and use depends on your particular role in a funding
application, an award administration process or in other interactions and partnerships with the
Irish Research Council.
As a data subject, your role could be any of the following:
• Grant applicant
• Awardee
• Expert assessor
• Referee
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• Academic supervisor or mentor
• Enterprise or employment partner mentor
• Member of staff of host institution
• Other individuals or staff of organisations that engage with us in carrying out our activities
For all categories of participants in the Irish Research Council’s application and award processes,
we will collect your name, gender, nationality, date of birth and email address. Additional
information will be collected and used depending on the role you fulfil in a funding scheme or
other engagement with the Irish Research Council. Further information is provided in in the
sections “You may give us personal data by” and “What information about you do we collect
from others?” (below) and in Appendix 1.
The term “personal data” means any information concerning or relating to a living person who
is either identified or identifiable.
We may collect Special Category Personal Data, including health-related information, from time
to time. Although this type of information is generally not specifically requested it is sometimes
provided, for example, in support of a request for an extension to a funded award. When we do
receive this data, steps are taken to ensure that it is processed and stored securely.
YOU MAY GIVE US PERSONAL DATA BY:
• Applying for funding and/or using our online application systems. The type of information
collected includes your name; email address; telephone number; postal address; gender;
date of birth; nationality; ORCID ID; and other data depending on the type of application,
including but not limited to information about your academic qualifications; prior work
experience and current employment status; publications and other research outputs;
information about the proposed research and training related activities; and bank details
for payment (assessors only). We also collect information about when you accessed the
online application system, what changes you made in your application or other forms and/or
in your profile, and about the device from which you have accessed the system.
• Submitting progress, final or financial reports on a funded award.
• Corresponding with us by phone or email. We ask you to disclose only as much information
as is necessary to submit a question or a suggestion/comment.
• Subscribing to our mailing list through www.research.ie (our website).
• By posting messages or comments through social media accounts, including but not limited
to Twitter. We do not use data you share with us on social media for any purposes other
than communicating with you on the given channel.
• Completing surveys issued by the Irish Research Council on matters pertaining to its awards,
activities, programmes and policies.
• Registering to attend events/meetings convened by the Irish Research Council.
WHAT INFORMATION ABOUT YOU DO WE COLLECT FROM OTHERS?
We may collect/process personal data on you from others. This includes:
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Personal data on applicants or awardees, supervisors/mentors and referees
• Details provided by referees, supervisors, mentors and host organisations when applicants
apply for a research grant.
• Details provided by other research funding bodies under collaborative funding
arrangements, where the other body is responsible for running the call.
• Personal data on supervisors/mentors (academic or enterprise/employer).
• Details provided by higher education institution/research performing organisation when
you are registered as a supervisor or academic mentor by that institution’s authorised
officer. The type of information provided includes your name, position and contact details.
• Details provided by applicants when they are proposing you as their referee or nonacademic
mentor. The type of information provided includes your name and contact details.
Personal data on awardees
• Details provided by supervisors, mentors and host research institutions as part of progress
reporting on a funded award.
• Information from host research institutions pertaining to student registration, start dates
and completion dates for qualifications or other funding status.
• Details provided by other research funding bodies under collaborative funding
arrangements, where the other body is responsible for administering progress reporting on
a co-funded award.
• Where there is information publicly available about current or former Irish Research
Council-funded awardees such as ORCID, publishing platforms and LinkedIn.
Other individuals
• Information collected by the Higher Education Authority when you apply to work with us. The
type of information you may provide includes your CV; a cover letter; your name, address,
email address and phone number; your employment history and education (degrees
obtained, places worked, positions held, relevant awards, and so forth). We ask that you do
not disclose sensitive personal information (e.g. gender, height, weight, medical
information, religion, philosophical or political beliefs, financial data) in such applications.
WHY DO WE COLLECT THIS INFORMATION?
We collect and use personal information to carry out our mandate. We use the information
collected to:
• Process grant applications submitted to us
• Commission expert assessments of eligible applications for funding received by us
• Select applicants for funding under individual programmes
• Make payments to Irish research bodies in respect of awards
• Collect contributions from co-funding partner organisations
• Fulfil any reporting duties attaching to our funding
• Meet our reporting and other contractual obligations for awards funded or co-funded by the
European Commission or other international entities, where applicable
• Publish information about awards granted on our website and to promote our awards using
various communication means, including online
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• Monitor the progress of individual awards and to monitor the career progression of
awardees and former awardees
• Monitor and review the use of exchequer and other funding, including for audits and
publishing statistics on trends in applications and funding, including areas such as discipline,
career stage and gender
• Review or evaluate individual award programmes, including processes and procedures
relating to application, assessment and post-award
• Assess the impact and demonstrate the value of publicly funded research
• Carry out policy and strategy studies
• Carry out payment, administration and review of any award
• Maintain our database of awards on our website or inclusion of information on other
platforms (e.g. ORCID)
• In conjunction with the HEA as appropriate, to process applications to work with us, including
by assessing qualifications, verifying information, conducting reference or other
employment-related checks, and notifying you of future opportunities that might be of
interest to you
• To deliver our newsletter, where you have subscribed to our mailing list
• To administer and improve our website and for internal operations, including
troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes • As part of
our efforts to keep our website safe and secure
WHAT ARE THE LEGAL BASES FOR THE COLLECTION AND USE OF YOUR
DATA?
The following are the legal bases on which we collect and use personal data:
• Where processing is necessary is for the performance of a task in the public interest or in the
exercise of official authority vested in us as an agency under the aegis of the Higher Education
Authority
• To comply with our legal obligations
• To perform our contract with you.
Special Category Personal Data, including health-related information, may be collected and used
from time to time. Although this type of information is generally not specifically requested, it is
sometimes provided, for example, in support of a request for an award suspension. We request
and use any Special Category Personal Data where necessary to administer awards, as per our
mandate.
WHO DO WE SHARE THIS INFORMATION WITH?
We may share your personal data with selected third parties in the carrying out of our mandate.
These third parties include:
• The Higher Education Authority (and their auditors), the Department of Further and Higher
Education, Research, Innovation and Science or other relevant government departments,
including for purposes connected with preparing ministerial or departmental briefings
• The European Commission
• Funding partners, including enterprises, not-for-profit organisations, government
departments or agencies, and research funding agencies in other countries
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• Research-performing institutions eligible for Irish Research Council funding
• The Health Research Board, where necessary and proportionate, to facilitate payments of
grants. For more information please see the HRB’s Privacy Notice.
• Expert assessors
• Competent regulatory authorities and bodies as requested or required by law
• The public, as users of our website
• Consultants, including process auditors, who carry out reviews or evaluations of programmes
or other aspects of our activities
• Third-party service providers, including IT service providers. See Schedule 1 below for a list
of current third-party service providers.
In addition, we may share your data with third parties if we are under a duty to disclose such
information in order to comply with any legal obligation; in order to enforce or apply our terms
of use and other agreements; or to protect our rights, property or safety, our customers, or
others.
We share information with the general public about our current and former awardees in the
awardee database on our website. This may include the year of award, name of awardee, award
type, higher education institution, partner (where applicable), discipline, project title, abstract or
lay summary and ORICD.
HOW LONG DO WE RETAIN YOUR INFORMATION?
The time periods for which we retain your information depends on the type of information and
the purposes for which we use it. We will keep your information for no longer than is required
or permitted. For assessing the impact and demonstrating the value of publicly funded research,
audits and other purposes as set out above in ‘WHY DO WE COLLECT THIS INFORMATION?’,
information on successful awardees is kept permanently. For unsuccessful applications, we
retain information for five years. We delete applicant profiles with no applications and no login
activity on an annual basis.
For further information on the periods for which your personal data is kept, please see our data
retention policy in Schedule 2.
DO WE TRANSFER YOUR INFORMATION OUTSIDE THE EUROPEAN
UNION OR EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA?
The data that we collect from you may be transferred to and stored in countries outside the
European Economic Area (EEA) for which there is or is not an adequacy decision relating to the
safeguards for personal data from the European Commission.
Because of the nature of our functions and activities, personal data is stored in the cloud and
accessed by international evaluators, mentors, referees, financial officers and participants
worldwide. Standard Contractual Clauses have been put in place to ensure protection of your
personal data. You may obtain a copy of those safeguards by contacting dataprotection@hea.ie
or by other means as specified in the “How can you contact us?” section below.
The location of technical support desks for third-party service providers may be outside of the
EU/EEA. Currently these include SmartSimple and WizeHive. In addition, we use Twilio as a
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thirdparty processor in order to send emails from our SmartSimple online system; Twilio
processes emails outside the EU.
All assessors, some of whom may be based outside the EU/EEA, agree to a declaration of
confidentiality to not disclose any information about the applications or any matter relating to
them.
DO WE USE AUTOMATED DECISION-MAKING AND PROFILING?
We do not use automated decision-making/profiling in any of our activities.
WHAT ARE YOUR RIGHTS WITH RESPECT TO YOUR PERSONAL DATA?
You have the following rights:
• To access the personal data we hold about you
• To require us to rectify any inaccurate personal data about you without undue delay
• To have us erase any personal data we hold about you in certain circumstances, such as when
it is no longer necessary for us to hold the personal data or, in some circumstances, if you
have withdrawn your consent to the processing
• To object to us processing personal data about you, such as processing for profiling or direct
marketing
• To ask us to provide your personal data to you in a portable format or, where technically
feasible, for us to port that personal data to another provider provided it does not result in
a disclosure of personal data relating to other people
• To request a restriction of the processing of your personal data
Where our processing of your personal data is based on your consent to that processing, you
have the right to withdraw that consent at any time, but any processing that we have carried
out before you withdrew your consent remains lawful.
You may exercise any of the above rights by contacting dataprotection@hea.ie or by other means
as specified in the “How can you contact us?” section below.
You may lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority with respect to our processing
of your personal data. The local Supervisory Authority in Ireland is the Data Protection
Commission. Its website is www.dataprotection.ie.
Please note that we require certain information in order to be able to provide you with our
services/carry out our functions. In those circumstances, failure to provide this information when
requested may result in us being unable to provide our services to you.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF WE CHANGE OUR PRIVACY NOTICE?
This notice may change from time to time. Any changes will be posted on our website and
effective when posted. You are advised to review this notice each time you use our services. This
notice was last updated on the date appearing at the top of the notice.
HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US?
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Our Data Protection Officer can be contacted:
By phone: +353 1 231 7100
By email: dataprotection@hea.ie
By post: Data Protection Officer
Irish Research Council
3 Shelbourne Buildings, Crampton Avenue
Shelbourne Road, Ballsbridge,
Dublin 4, Ireland
DO4 C2Y6
SCHEDULE 1: Third-party service providers
Below is a list of typical third-party service providers with whom we may share your data. This
list is not exhaustive:
Third-party name Description of services provided
Amazon Cloud service provider, hosting data related to applications for funding
and awards, including user profiles
Kefron Storage and archiving
MailChimp Distribution of our newsletter
Microsoft Email service provider
ORCID For publishing award, distinction or prize information, tracking of
researchers’ and alumni outputs and career development using their
persistent digital identifier (an ORCID iD)
Pulp Shredding
SmartSimple and its Online application and award management system
partners
SurveyMonkey Undertaking online surveys, some of which might collect personal data
Twilio Email service provider for sending automated email notifications
generated by the SmartSimple system
WizeHive Online application and award management system
WordPress Hosting of our website and our publicly available database with
information about our awardees
SCHEDULE 2: Retention policy
Category of personal data Retention period Action
Applications
Successful applications: application forms, assessment Permanent Retain
forms, award offers, signed award agreements, progress
reports and related documents
Unsuccessful applications: application forms, assessment Five years from the year of Delete
forms and related documents the call deadline
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Draft applications and related documents One year from the year of Delete
the call deadline
User profiles
Applicants with a successful application Permanent Retain
Applicants with an unsuccessful application Five years from the year of Delete
the call deadline
Applicants with no submitted application One year since last login Delete
Supervisors and mentors Permanent Retain
Referee on a successful application Permanent Retain
Referee on an unsuccessful application Five years from the year of Retain
the call deadline
Non-academic mentors on a successful application Permanent Retain
Non-academic mentors on an unsuccessful application Five years from the year of Delete
the call deadline
Assessors associated with a successful application Permanent Retain
Assessors associated with an unsuccessful application Five years from the year of Review
the call deadline
Assessors not associated with any application Five years since last login Delete
Other
Routine supporting documentation and background Permanent Retain
material which assist in work processes (includes routine
email and correspondence)
APPENDIX 1: Data on awards
Data collected on awards will fall into some or all of the following categories:
Personal data:
• Contact details
• Family status
• Nationality/Residency details
• Employment/Voluntary details, including eligibility status and languages
• Banking/Financial details
• Education/Academic experience
• Funding details, historic and current
• Achievements/Memberships
Project data:
• Title, abstract, description of proposal/award
• Categorisation of research
• Financial details
• Project plan
• Details pertaining to anyone associated with the project
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• Training and career development plan
• Intellectual property agreements
• Travel/conferences/publications/abstracts/book chapters/press
• Education and public engagement activities
• Ethical approval details
• Details of nominated figures associated with the project, e.g. assessors, referees, etc.
• Institutional details
• Details of non-academic members/partners associated with the project, e.g. enterprise
partners, registered charity; cultural organisation; not-for-profit, etc.
• Details collected from national or international research bodies
• Progress reports
Note: This list is a guide to the types of information associated with application to and running of
awards, but it is not exhaustive.
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