Guidance

Research and innovation (R&I) workforce survey wave 2: Privacy Notice

Updated 19 July 2024

© Crown copyright 2024

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/research-and-innovation-ri-workforce-survey-wave-2-privacy-notice/research-and-innovation-ri-workforce-survey-wave-2-privacy-notice

Purpose

We are collecting evidence on the research and innovation (R&I) workforce to create a better evidence base for policy decision-making in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and other relevant government departments.

The purpose of this study is to collect information to inform policy development and to understand the impact of government policy on those working in research and innovation.  This project is a follow-up study of the 2022 Research and Innovation (R&I) workforce survey. The project will therefore provide time series data on R&I careers and the diversity and mobility of the R&I workforce. This will provide decision makers with further evidence on the R&I workforce and will help to strengthen evidence-based policymaking.   

DSIT have contracted the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), a specialist research agency, to deliver the survey.

All personal information collected as part of this project will be used for research purposes and forming an evidence base for better policy decision-making.

Any analysis derived from the study will not contain any individual-level personal data and respondents will be kept anonymous.

Under no circumstances will the collected survey data or any matched data be used to profile individuals, or to influence individual funding decisions.

The Notice

This notice sets out how we will process your personal data as part of this activity and your associated data protection rights. It is made under Articles 13 and/or 14 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).

For the purposes of UK GDPR, DSIT is the data controller and BIT are a data processor, acting under the instruction of DSIT.

Survey recruitment

Participants have been recruited through departmental communications and direct invites from BIT to known research and innovation professionals.

If you have received a direct invitation from BIT, your contact details will have been provided to them from existing DSIT records or via DSIT, from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Your contact details will have derived from previous survey submissions, UKRI’s grant data or through a previous grant application to Innovate UK.

The sharing of your contact details from UKRI has been undertaken in line with the following policies:

You may have received an invitation via Gov.Notify, a government communications platform. In this instance, your contact details will have been uploaded to the platform hosted by the Government Digital Services (Cabinet Office). For these purposes, Cabinet Office will be a data processor acting under the instruction of DSIT.

The survey

Participation in the survey is voluntary. Questions relating to personal data are optional and can be left unanswered.

The questions relating to personal data seek the following:

  • Name
  • Email
  • Date of birth
  • Region
  • Organisation you work for
  • Gender
  • Gender identity
  • Sexual orientation
  • Ethnicity
  • Nationality
  • Age
  • Socioeconomic background
  • Disability
  • Health conditions
  • Pay
  • Your opinions

This means that we may also process your special category data defined in the UK GDPR as:

Personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation.

When provided, we may also use your data for the following purposes:

  • To contact you to discuss your response if you have agreed for us to do so.
  • To invite you for an in-depth interview if you have agreed for us to do so.
  • For recruitment to a future wave of the survey if you have agreed for us to do so.
  • To ensure exclusion from any recontacting for future waves if you do not agree to be recontacted.
  • To link your survey response data with other datasets as outlined in section 4 if you have agreed for us to do so.

The survey also includes optional free-text response fields that do not seek personal or identifiable data. Please avoid volunteering on-relevant identifiable information in these instances.

Data Linking

Data linking is an extension to the primary survey. Allowing us to match your survey response to other data sets will assist us in attaining a better understanding of the R&I workforce.

You will be asked if you would be happy for your data to be linked to selected data sets.   If you say yes, you will be asked to provide certain personal data when it is a requirement to enable the data linking. It will be made clear in the survey where this applies.

The provision of this personal data is optional.

Data linking will include one or both of the following data sets depending which data you agree to linking with:

a) One or more existing datasets: Higher Education Statistical Authority data, Longitudinal Educations Outcomes data, UK Innovation Survey, Office for National Statistics (ONS) R&D Expenditure and business data, Gateway to Research, Intellectual Property (IP) data, publications data (i.e. OpenAlex/SciVal), and Beauhurst. This will give DSIT a better overall picture of the R&I workforce, their education and career paths.
b)UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) grants datasets. This will provide UKRI with evidence on how to better tailor the policy and grants support that they offer to the R&I workforce. UKRI’s privacy policy can be found here. Individuals will have their names and email addresses associated with the unique survey invitations matched to data held by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). UKRI may also use survey responses on date of birth and gender to confirm that the person responding is the same person who was sent the unique link

The legal basis for processing your personal data is Article 6(1)(e) of the UK GDPR -

  • Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the data controller,

The legal basis for processing your special category data is Article 9(2)(g) of the UK GDPR -

  • Processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest for the exercise of a function of the Crown, a Minister of the Crown, or a government department.

Recipients

The following parties will be in receipt of your personal data:

  • BIT - Your personal data will be collected directly by DSITs delivery partner BIT, who will collect and analyse this data on DSIT’s behalf as a data processor.

See BITs separate privacy policy here.

  • IT Systems - Your personal data will be stored on information technology systems provided by our data processors - Microsoft and Amazon Web Services.

This does not mean we actively share your personal data with these entities; rather, they are technical service providers that host infrastructure supporting the IT systems.

The following parties may be in receipt of your personal data:

  • Gov.Notify - Your contact details may have been uploaded to the government communications platform for invitational purposes. See the Gov.Notify privacy notice.
  • Other government departments and agencies – where you agree for your personal data to be linked to other data sets as outlined in section 5.
  • Analysts working on DSIT research projects with genuine reason to access your personal data (for example R&I Workforce specific analysis or quality assurance).

We will share the following anonymous/ unidentifiable data:

  • Anonymous survey responses to UKRI for research purposes.
  • Anonymous survey responses to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) secure research/integrated data service.

Retention

  • Personal data provided by you during the survey will be kept for 5 years from the end of survey fieldwork.
  • Where we have utilised Gov.Notify to invite you to participate, your email address will be held on the platform for 4 months.

In addition:

  • Where personal data is provided for the purposes of recontacting participants for interviews/discussions/related research will be retained for a period of 12 months after they complete the survey.
  • Where personal data (emails and names) is provided for the purpose of recontacting participants for future waves of the survey, and/or personal data (data or birth) is provided for data linking with UKRI grants data or data from other government departments, this personal data will be retained for a period of 5 years from the end of survey fieldwork.

To request that we consider removing your personal data earlier, please contact - riworkforcesurvey@dsit.gov.uk.

Automated decision making

Your personal data will not be subject to automated decision making. 

International Transfers

Your personal data will be processed in the UK. Due to IT Infrastructure, it may also be stored at data centres outside of the UK but will remain within the European Economic Area (EEA). Your data receives the same level of protection in the EEA as it does in the UK through the safeguard of Adequacy Decisions.

Your rights

You have the right:

  • to request information about how your personal data are processed, and to request a copy of that personal data.
  • to request that any inaccuracies in your personal data are rectified without delay.
  • to request that any incomplete personal data are completed, including by means of a supplementary statement.
  • to request that your personal data are erased if there is no longer a justification for them to be processed.
  • in certain circumstances (for example, where accuracy is contested) to request that the processing of your personal data is restricted.
  • to object to the processing of your personal data at any time.

Contact details

The data controller for your personal data is the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). You can contact the DSIT Data Protection Officer at:

DSIT Data Protection Officer

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
22-26 Whitehall
London
SW1A 2EG

If you are unhappy with the way we have handled your personal data, please write to the department’s Data Protection Officer in the first instance using the contact details above.

To request the privacy notice for the first wave of the R&I workforce survey, which took place in 2022, please contact riworkforcesurvey@dsit.gov.uk.

Complaints

If you consider that your personal data has been misused or mishandled, you may make a complaint to the Information Commissioner, who is an UK independent regulator. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Email casework@ico.org.uk

Telephone 0303 123 1113

https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

Any complaint to the Information Commissioner is without prejudice to your right to seek redress through the courts.

Updates to this notice

If this privacy notice changes in any way, we will place an updated version on this page. Regularly reviewing this page ensures you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we will share it with other parties. The ‘last updated’ date at the bottom of this page will also change.

If these changes affect how your personal data is processed, we will take reasonable steps to let you know.

Last updated: 8 July 2024

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