User Terms and Conditions

The following paragraphs specify the basis on which you may use the Je-S System.  Please ensure that you understand these terms and conditions.  You must agree to abide by these before proceeding further.

1. General

1.1 Definitions

“The system” – the Je-S System, including the associated hardware, software, databases and Web pages.

“The Councils”, “we”, “us”, “our”, “ourselves” – AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC, STFC and other funding organisations using the Je-S system.

“UK Research and Innovation” brings together the Councils, Innovate UK and Research England.

“User”, “you”, “your”, “yourself” – an individual who uses the system.

“Service” – the service provided by the Councils through the Je-S System.

“Document” - any form and accompanying attachments that require an official submission route from the RO and/or user to the Councils.

1.2 What do these terms and conditions cover?

These terms and conditions tell you what constitutes legal use of the system. You must follow all our instructions on the use of the system.

The Laws of England and Wales govern these terms and conditions. The terms and conditions reflect what is acceptable to the Councils on the one hand, and the research and related communities within which the Councils operate on the other.

1.3 Changes to these terms and conditions

We reserve the right to change these terms and conditions. It is your responsibility to periodically check these terms and conditions to see if you are still willing to be bound by them.

Where possible, we will give you reasonable notice of changes and the date they take effect. The first time you log into the system, on or after this date, you will be presented with the new terms and conditions.  Following such notification your continued use of the system will be taken as acceptance of the revised terms and conditions.

1.4 System modification

Where reasonably possible we will give you advanced notice of significant changes to the system. We reserve the right to change, suspend or discontinue any or all parts of the system at any time without incurring any liability from you.

2. Use of System

You must only view and use those parts of the system to which you have been given access. We reserve the right to stop your access to the system (or parts of it) without notice or liability.

Only the research and related communities and the Councils may use the system.  Commercial and/or non-research related use is prohibited. If you make such unauthorised use we may deny you access to the system. 

We may also seek to invoke other relevant organisational, civil or criminal penalties.

Information, knowledge and data derived from any Peer Review documentation that you have been given access to via Je-S must not be shared with any other individual or third party.

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 the Councils into disrepute;
• is known to be infected with a virus, worm, Trojan horse, trap-door program or malicious code.

3. Privacy

3.1 Maintenance of data

We will maintain records held on the system in accordance with the UKRI record retention policy. Submitted Documents will be processed on the basis of public task under UK data protection legislation.

You are responsible for maintaining your personal data, including contact details, on the system. You may not be able to update all your personal data yourself. You should notify the Je-S Helpdesk if data which you cannot update yourself is incorrect or out of date. We will then consider how best to update the data. In some instances, in order for Councils to carry out core business, your contact data may be amended by Council staff. You will be notified of such changes.

3.2 Use of your personal information

UK Research and Innovation capture and process personal information in line with current UK data protection legislation. Our privacy notice provides more information around the processing of personal information, provides contact details for our Data Protection Officer and explains how to exercise your rights as a data subject.

All personal data collected via the Je-S system will be used in accordance with our notifications.  The Councils, and other approved funding organisations, use personal data submitted by system users for purposes associated with the application and award processes for grants, fellowships and studentships.  Personal data may be used in relation to:

• the registration of your proposal;
• the resolution of any queries which you may raise with the Je-S Helpdesk;
• the operation of grants processing and management information systems;
• the acquisition of UK and/or international peer reviewer comments on proposals and reports;
• the preparation of material for use by referees, peer reviewers, and peer review panels;
• your review of proposals and reports (if you are a reviewer);
• your response to peer reviewer comments (if you are an applicant);
• payments made to your Higher Education Institution or Independent Research 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.

By agreeing to these terms and conditions, and by accessing the system, you agree to your personal data being processed by us in this way and stored on the system and on our associated internal systems on the basis of public task under UK data protection legislation. To maintain public accountability, the Councils may publish or disclose into the public domain details of funded grants or fellowships. Disclosable information includes:

• the title of your award;
• your name;
• the institution at which you are studying or working;
• the dates associated with your award;
• the type of award;
• the funding provided to the institution;
• a description of your subject or study or research (e.g. project summary/abstract, and Impact Summary information).

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

3.3 Disclosure

The following information contained in documents submitted through to the Je-S system for funded research proposals may routinely be made publicly available, either pro-actively or on request, to applicants or the public:

• name of the host research organisation;
• details of applicants (title, forenames, initials, surname, research organisation and department);
• name(s) of project partner organisations;
• project title;
• technical and non-technical abstracts of the proposal;
• value and duration of proposal and any subsequent grant.

Research Councils may choose to disclose further information within legislation.
For us to meet the requirements of Freedom of Information legislation we may use these and other data to provide information on Council activities. This may be in response to enquiries from various sources, including the general public.

3.4 Confidentiality of your application

We each acknowledge the importance of keeping all details in your submission confidential. This is necessary to encourage the submission of innovative proposals from the scientific community and to encourage frank reviewer comment. Accordingly, you and the Research Councils undertake to each other to keep confidential all information in relation to the submission, including:

• the fact that an application has been made;
• name of the host research organisation;
• details of applicants (title, forenames, initials, surname, ORCID identifier, research organisation and department);
• name(s) of project partner organisations;
• project title;
• technical and non-technical abstracts of the proposal, including all details of the science project and training programmes;
• peer review information.

Confidential information is not released other than as required for operational purposes and within the peer review process, unless there is an overriding public interest.
This obligation of confidentiality will not apply in the following circumstances:

• where your application is approved and funded. In such situations, paragraph 3.3 will apply so that the Councils can disclose those details;
• when the Councils are required to disclose details by law (including under the Freedom of Information Act 2000) or by any regulatory body to whose rule 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 science contained in your proposal become generally available, the Councils’ 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.

The Councils may disclose all and any information under 3.3 above, to employees of UK Research and Innovation as appropriate, or to referees and committee members involved in assessing proposals. UK Research and Innovation undertake to make such employees, referees and committee members aware of the confidentiality of the information described in 3.3 above.

3.5 Cookies

Services provided by the Je-S System website involves placing small amounts of information on your device, for example, computer or mobile phone. These include small files known as cookies. They cannot be used to identify you personally. The cookies:

• recognise that you have already given a username and password so you don't need to do it for every web page requested;
• recognise if you have already selected to use the High Contrast version of Je-S so that you do not have to reselect the option every time you visit the Je-S System.

To be able to use the Je-S System you will need to set your browser settings to enable cookies.

The cookies used by the Je-S System are:

Cookie name	Purpose	Expires
ASP.NET_SessionId	This cookie is a 'session identifier', which allows the site to recognise your movement around the site as being from one computer.	When you close your browser
JesHighContrast	This cookie allows the site to recognise that you previously selected the High Contrast version of Je-S.	After one month
jesje-s.rcuk.ac.uk	This is a secure cookie used by the Je-S website to maintain a link to the Je-S session state.	When you close your browser

4. Security

4.1 Your account

You will own a personal identifier (PID), username and password in order to access the system. You can choose your own username and password provided it 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 Je-S Helpdesk (E-mail: JeSHelp@je-s.ukri.org Phone: +44 (0) 1793 44 4164).

4.2 Your obligations

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 username and password of another user;
• the use of 128-bit encryption technology is legally approved in the country from which you are connecting;
• 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;
• applicants have obtained the permission of any other person named on the proposal form (for example any Co-Investigators or Project Partners) for the provision of their personal information to UKRI and the processing of their data by UKRI for the purpose of assessing the application and management of any funding awarded;
• that no actual or potential security breaches occur as a result of your action;
• all security breaches are reported promptly to the Je-S Helpdesk.

If these security provisions are breached, we may decide to stop your access to the system. In such circumstances we reserve the right to deny you further access to any new Council-related activities. You may also be subject to civil or criminal action.

5. Liability

5.1 Users of the system

You must, if asked by us, provide any evidence you possess that may be relevant to any claim brought against us (collectively or individually) associated with the use of the system.

You use the data from the system at your own risk.

Subject to the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, you shall not, as a result of using the system, have any claim against us or hold us liable for the results of your actions based on these terms and conditions, or from the consequences of the following:

• your failure to comply with any of these terms and conditions;
• your failure to maintain your personal data on the system;
• your failure to notify us of incorrect or out of date personal data that you are unable to update yourself;
• any unlawful disclosures or interference with any of the system’s transmissions;
• any alleged or actual breach of these terms and conditions by any third party to whom, in breach of these terms and conditions, you made this system available (e.g. by disclosure of your password);
• your alleged or actual breaching of copyright, trade mark rights or any other intellectual property rights (or similar rights anywhere in the world) belonging to any other person.

5.2 UK Research and Innovation

We have taken due care in the development and implementation of the system. Subject to the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, we disclaim all explicit or implicit warranties regarding satisfactory quality or fitness for a particular purpose.

We do not guarantee:

• the availability of the system;
• the integrity of the data in the system;
• that the service will be uninterrupted or error-free.

The system and any associated e-mails and documents are believed to be free from viruses but it is your responsibility to carry out all necessary virus checks and we accept no liability in this connection.

We accept no liability for any loss that may arise from:

• 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 Web sites that are not under our control.

5.3 General

If any provisions of these disclaimers and exclusions are unlawful, void or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be regarded as separated from these terms and conditions, but shall not affect the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions.

6. Copyright

With the exception of Documents created by users, we own the copyright of the material contained in the system. 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 reproduce, distribute, transmit modify, adapt, display (including adaptations/displays such as by "framing") the contents, of all or any part, the system without our prior written permission, with the exception of using the system through the normal means provided by the Councils.

We own the software on which the system is built. You must not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the system’s software unless applicable law allows you to do so.