UKRI Funding Service terms of use

Please read these terms of use carefully before using the UKRI Funding Service.

Definitions

“The system” –  the UKRI Funding Service, including the associated hardware, software, databases and Web pages.

“The funding bodies” – Arts and Humanities Research Council, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, Natural Environment Research Council, Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK Research and Innovation, Innovate UK and Research England.

UK Research and Innovation (“UKRI”) “we”, “us”, “our”, “ourselves” – the owner and provider of this service.

The UKRI Funding Service and www.funding-service.ukri.org/ is operated by us an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy whose head office is at Polaris House, Swindon, SN2 1FL and we represent the funding bodies.

“User”, “you”, “your”, “yourself” – an individual who uses the system and the organisation(s) you represent.

“Service” – the service provided by UKRI through the UKRI Funding Service.

By using our system you accept these terms

These Terms of use, their subject matter and their formation (and any non-contractual disputes or claims) are governed by English law. By using our system, we both agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales and you confirm that you accept these Terms of use and that you agree to comply with them.

If you do not agree to these terms, you must not use our system.

There are other terms that may apply

These terms of use refer to the following additional terms which also apply to your use of our system:

• Our Privacy notice – see further under ‘How we may use your personal information’ below
• The UKRI Terms of use
• Our Cookie policy, which sets out information about the cookies on our system

If you receive funding from an application submitted on our system, you will be provided with Grant Terms and Conditions specific to the individual Opportunity.

We may make changes to these terms

We amend these terms from time to time. Every time you wish to use our system, you may wish to check these terms to ensure you understand the terms that apply at that time.

We may make changes to our system

Where reasonably possible, we will give you advanced notice of significant changes to the system. Changes may be necessary to reflect changes to funding, users’ needs and our business priorities (or other reason).

We may suspend or withdraw our system

Our system is made available free of charge.

We do not guarantee that our system, or any content on it, will always be available or be uninterrupted. We may suspend or withdraw or restrict the availability of all or any part of our system for business and operational reasons without incurring any liability to you. We will try to give you reasonable notice of any suspension or withdrawal.

You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our system through your internet connection are aware of these terms of use and other applicable terms and conditions, and that they comply with them.

We may transfer this agreement to someone else

We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to another organisation. We will always tell you in writing if this happens and we will ensure that the transfer will not affect your rights under the contract.

Who may use our system

The ‘User’ and use of the system is limited to one or more of the following:

• Applicants for Opportunities for funding available through the UKRI Funding Service, including approved and relevant UK businesses
• Applicants’ colleagues, and research organisations the Applicant represents, and individuals and organisations associated with and instructed by the Applicant
• UKRI and associated funding contributors
• Reviewers, panellists, monitors and auditors

Copyright and how material on our system can be used  

With the exception of information created by users, we own the copyright of the material contained in the system. We are also the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our system, and in the material published on it. These works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved.

This includes but is not limited to:

• textual material
• artwork
• photographs
• computer software
• audio and visual elements
• the database design and reference data
• the structure and design of the system.

You must not use any part of the content on our system for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors.

If you print off, copy or download any part of our system, in breach of these terms of use, your right to use our system will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made.

You must only view and use those parts of the system to which you have been given access. We reserve the right to stop access to the system (or parts of it) without notice or liability. We may also seek to invoke other relevant organisational, civil or criminal penalties.

You must not upload, distribute or publish on the system any material that:

• is pornographic in content (unless it is a legitimate part of a lawful research proposal)
• is part of criminal or terrorist activities (studies of such activities for lawful research purposes are permissible)
• promotes or encourages racism or intolerance
• is illegal
• is untruthful
• is defamatory, offensive or abusive
• may bring us into disrepute
• is known to be infected with a virus, worm, Trojan horse, trap-door program or malicious code.

Your account and how we may use your personal information

To access the system, you’ll need to provide an email and a password that meets our minimum requirements. We have built in appropriately high standards of security to protect your interests as well as ours. You can request that your user account is terminated by notifying the Helpdesk – email: support@funding-service.ukri.org (phone: +44 (0) 1793 44 2900).

All personal data provided to UKRI will be processed in accordance with current UK data protection legislation. Further information on how we use personal data, and how you can exercise your rights as a data subject, can be found in the UK Research and Innovation Privacy notice.

All personal data submitted via this system is processed under UKRI’s Public Task.

UKRI will use personal data submitted by system users for purposes associated with the application and award processes for grants, fellowships and studentships. this includes but may not be not limited to:

• setting up and managing your user account
• communicating with you about upcoming opportunities
• the registration of your proposal
• the resolution of any queries which you may raise
• the operation of awards processing and management information systems
• the acquisition of reviewer and panellist comments on applications, awards and projects
• the preparation of material for use by expert reviewers, and panellists
• your review of applications, awards and projects (if you are a reviewer)
• your response to reviewer and panellist comments (if you are an applicant)
• payments made to your Organisation
• statistical analysis in relation to the evaluation of research and the study of trends
• our inviting you to participate in surveys about the level of services provided by UKRI*
• UKRI policy and strategy studies*.

* this may include research undertaken by a third party on behalf of UKRI.

We will only ask you to provide the minimum amount of data that is necessary for us to be able to meet our purposes.

You are responsible for maintaining your personal data, including contact details, on the system. If you cannot update all your personal data yourself, you should notify the UKRI Funding Service Helpdesk when data is incorrect or out of date. We will then consider how best to update the data. In some instances, for UKRI to carry out core business, your contact data may be amended by UKRI staff. You will be notified of such changes.

All information held by UKRI is kept in accordance with the record retention policy. There will be occasions where information submitted to this system will be pulled into other systems for processing and/or analysis.

A limited set of data is published relating to funded research will be published.  More information can be found in ‘Disclosure’ below.

By accessing the system, you accept these terms and conditions, and agree to your personal data being processed by UKRI in this way and stored on the system and on our associated internal systems

If you have any queries with regard to the processing of your personal data, please contact our Data Protection Officer: dataprotection@ukri.org

UKRI is subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and to the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.  As such, following receipt of a request, information may be released in accordance with the legislation.  All requests for additional information are considered on their own merits.  Further information is set out in our Publication Scheme.

Confidentiality of your application

We acknowledge the importance of keeping all details in your submission confidential. This is necessary to encourage the submission of innovative proposals from the research community and to encourage frank reviewer comment. Accordingly, you shall keep confidential all information in relation to the submission and its review.

Confidential details in your submission are not released by UKRI other than as required for operational purposes and within the review process, unless there is an overriding public interest, or one of the circumstances outlined below applies:

• where your application is approved and funded. In such situations, the ‘Disclosure’ paragraph will apply
• when UKRI is required to disclose details by law (including under the Freedom of Information Act 2000) or by any regulatory body to whose rule the UK Research and Innovation is subject
• where the information is already in the public domain or gets into the public domain through no fault of ours. In this respect, when details of the research and innovation contained in your proposal become generally available, UKRI’s obligation of confidentiality ends
• where the information was provided to us by any third party who had a lawful right to disclose it to us and who did not require us to hold it in confidence
• where the information was already rightfully in our possession and not confidential at the time of its receipt or is referred to above as to be made publicly available.

UKRI may disclose all and any information provided by funding applicants to our employees and employees of associated funders as appropriate, or to expert reviewers and panellists involved in assessing applications. UKRI undertake to make such employees, referees and committee members aware of the confidentiality of this information.

Reviewer protocols

Introduction

The funding bodies have adopted a code of practice for everybody who works with or for UKRI. This code embraces the ‘Seven Principles of Public Life’ (also known as the Nolan Principles) which are endorsed by Parliament.

The principles cover:

• selflessness
• integrity
• objectivity
• accountability
• openness
• honesty
• leadership.

Confidentiality

Reviewers must treat all information relating to applications in confidence, keep any personally retained information secure and destroy it once the review process has been completed. Reviewers must not share any information, knowledge or data obtained from peer review documentation with other individuals or third parties under any circumstances.

Reviewers should review all information based on the instructions given in the system’s help text. They should refer any questions related to reviewing the application to the UKRI helpdesk and must not contact applicants directly.

We usually keep reviewers’ identities anonymous*. We may share anonymised comments with applicants and the submitting organisation, and give applicants the opportunity to respond to completed reviews to support transparency of decision making.

*There may be occasions where identities are shared with boards or panels for specific reasons.

The funding bodies expect all parties to respect the roles of all those involved in the peer review process. If you feel unable to comment, you should let the UKRI helpdesk know as soon as possible so that we can find alternative reviewers. We welcome suggestions for possible alternative reviewers.

Conflicts of interest

An important part of the protocols is avoiding any conflicts between personal interests and the interests of the funding bodies. In the context of peer reviewing applications and final reports, a conflict of interest could occur from the following types of relationships:

• direct
• indirect
• personal
• academic
• financial
• working.

The acid test is whether a member of the public, knowing the facts of the situation, might reasonably think the judgement could be influenced by the potential conflict of interest.

If your involvement in assessing an application or final report might be perceived as a conflict of interest, you should either:

• decline the invitation to review it
• contact the UKRI helpdesk for further advice.

Sometimes applicants ask us not to invite certain individuals to review their applications or final reports. Because of this, reviewers must not show applications or final reports to others or ask anybody else to review them on their behalf.

Equal opportunities

The funding bodies are committed to equal opportunities in all their activities. Reviewers must avoid any bias in their assessments or final reports due to:

• gender
• disability
• age
• racial or ethnic origin
• sexual orientation
• religious belief.

Reviewers’ comments must not break this policy, or be defamatory or otherwise actionable.

Protection of information and ideas

The integrity of peer review is dependent on the selflessness of reviewers. Reviewers must treat all information relating to the consideration of applications and final reports as strictly confidential and seen for the purpose of review only.

We do not encourage taking any copies of information from the system, but recognise this may be required in some circumstances. Any copies taken must be held securely and reviewers must report any loss* of this information to incident@ukri.org. After assessment, reviewers must destroy all documentation relating to the review. Reviewers must not take advantage of any information obtained as a result of their role.

*This can include loss of hardcopies and theft of devices which have copies stored on the hard drive.

By accepting these protocols, reviewers will be legally bound to keep the information contained in the applications in strict confidence and in safe custody. They will not use, copy or record any confidential information for any reason other than the peer review process.

The obligations of confidentiality will not apply to any information which can be shown to be in the reviewer’s possession before this agreement.

Research misconduct

Progress in research depends on honesty and the presentation of genuine results. The funding bodies take research misconduct, including misrepresentation in applications or final reports, very seriously. We expect reviewers to let us know about any instances of research misconduct as a matter of urgency.

Reviewers should raise any questions about this issue arising from the review of applications or final reports with the UKRI helpdesk. There’s also further advice on our website, including guidance for reviewers about how we make decisions.

Disclosure

The following information contained in funded research proposals may also be routinely made publicly available:

• name of the lead organisation or recipient
• details of applicants (title, forenames, initials, surname, organisation and department)
• name(s) of partner organisations
• project title
• a description of your subject or study or research (for example, project summary/abstract, and Impact Summary information).
• value and duration of proposal and any subsequent grant.
• the type of award.

Our IT obligations and yours

We do not guarantee that our system, associated content and emails will be secure or free from bugs or viruses.

You are responsible for configuring your information technology, computer programmes and platform to access our system. You should use your own virus protection software.

We also accept no liability for any loss that may arise, that you could have avoided by following our advice to apply an update offered to you free of charge, or for damage caused by you failing to correctly follow installation instructions, or to have in place the minimum system requirements advised by us:

• your use of the data from the system
• your use or inability to use the system
• loss, corruption or unavailability of data
• our failure to provide support services associated with the system
• your use of certain hypertext links in the system which lead to websites that are not under our control.

You must not misuse our service by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material that is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our system, the server on which our system is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our system. You must not attack our system via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack. By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our system will cease immediately.

When using the system, you must observe high levels of security to protect the personal details and safety of all users.

You must ensure that:

• you do not share your password with anybody or otherwise make the system available to them
• you do not use the email address or password of another user
• you do not use the system to propagate any virus, worm, Trojan horse, trap-door program or any malicious code (deliberate distribution or creation of computer viruses is an offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990)
• you do not invade the rights of privacy or other personal or property rights, or infringe the copyright or trademark or other rights of any person or organisation
• that no actual or potential security breaches occur because of your action
• all security breaches are reported promptly to the UKRI Funding Service Helpdesk.

We have the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by us, at any time, if in our reasonable opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these terms of use.

If you think someone else knows your user identification code or password, you must promptly notify us at: support@funding-service.ukri.org, or by calling the UKRI Funding Service Helpline: +44 (0)1793 44 29.

Liability

We do not exclude or limit in any way our liability to you where it would be unlawful to do so. This includes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or the negligence of our employees, agents or subcontractors and for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation.

We exclude all implied conditions, warranties, representations or other terms that may apply to our system or any content on it.

We will not be liable to you for any loss or damage, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, even if foreseeable, arising under or in connection with the use of, or inability to use, our system; use of or reliance on any content displayed on our system.

In particular, we will not be liable for:

• loss of profits, sales, business, or revenue
• business interruption
• loss of anticipated savings
• loss of business opportunity, goodwill or reputation
• any indirect or consequential loss or damage.

Our trademarks

Copying or use of any UKRI logo, unless it’s part of material you are using as permitted under Copyright and how material on our system can be used, requires permission for use, which should be directed to our brand team: brand@ukri.org.

Using third party logos, accessed from this service, may require prior approval from the relevant copyright owner.