Privacy policy

This privacy policy sets out how STRINGS collects, uses and protects your personal information.

Information about how this website collects and uses personal data is available under the heading ‘Using this website’ further down this page and information about how we use cookies is available in our cookies policy.

We are committed to ensuring that any personal information we collect is processed in a secure, responsible manner.

Who we are

STRINGS is a research project being led by the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex, University College London (UCL) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Our research activities are being conducted by a consortium of partner universities and organisations.

You can contact us at strings@sussex.ac.uk.

The type of personal information we collect

For the purposes of our research, we currently collect and process:

  • Name
  • Email address
  • Job title
  • Area of expertise
  • Geographic region of work activity (e.g. South East Asia)
  • Opinions and experiences relevant to our research (e.g. of how science, technology and innovation funding correlate with the UN Sustainable Development Goals).

How we collect personal information

Some of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you for one of the following reasons:

  • To contribute to our research by taking part in our Delphi survey, case studies (including fieldwork interviews and focus groups), expert group, sounding boards, webinars or workshops
  • To be included in our mailing list to receive updates and information via email.

Some of the personal information we process is gathered indirectly from the following sources in the following scenarios:

  • Internet research and reviewing of academic publications to identify stakeholders whose work is relevant to our research, who may be interested in contributing to our research or receiving project outputs
  • Our project team share information about their contacts whose work is relevant to our research, who may be interested in contributing to our research or receiving project outputs
  • External stakeholders share information about their contacts whose work is relevant to our research, who may be interested in contributing to our research or receiving project outputs

How we use personal information

We use the information that either you have given us, we have identified through Internet research or that has been shared with us to:

  • Invite you to take part in our research by engaging with some or all of the following: Delphi survey, case studies, expert group, sounding boards, webinars or workshops
  • Complete systemic data analysis, to map and visualise research and innovation activity through time and across countries, in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  • Develop policy pathways to align investments in science, technology and innovation to contribute to the SDGs and provide evidence, tools and guidelines to this end.

Who your personal data may be shared with

We may share this information with members of the STRINGS project team working at the institutions listed above under ‘Who we are’.

Processing of personal data submitted via this website will be carried out by Mailchimp on behalf of STRINGS for our newsletter subscription.

The legal basis for processing your personal data

Under data protection legislation, the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:

  • We need it to perform a public task or
  • Your consent.

You can ask for your information to be removed from our stakeholder list, and not to be contacted again, at any time. You can do this by contacting strings@sussex.ac.uk. 

How we store your personal information 

Your information is stored securely, in line with the University of Sussex’s information handling policy.

How long we will keep your personal data

We will only keep your personal data for as long as is necessary for our research purposes for which it is processed. 

Who to contact for more information or to raise concerns

You can ask for your information to be removed from our stakeholder list, and not to be contacted again, at any time. You can do this by contacting strings@sussex.ac.uk.

Your data protection rights

Under data protection legislation our data subjects have certain rights, including the right to access their information and rectify any errors. Full details can be found in the University of Sussex’s Privacy Notice, but please be aware that there are some exemptions for data which is processed for research purposes.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.

Please contact us at strings@sussex.ac.uk if you wish to make a request.

How to complain

 If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us at strings@sussex.ac.uk.

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.

The ICO’s address:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113. ICO website.

Using this website

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

1. Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

An anonymised string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. Read the Gravatar service’s Privacy Policy. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

2. Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognise and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Where we send your data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.