Guidance

Science and Technology Venture Capital Fellowship Privacy Notice

Published 28 March 2024

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

The purposes of this privacy notice is to permit the effective processing of Expressions of Interest for the Venture Capital Fellowship. More information on the fellowship can be found here.

Your data

We will process the following personal data:

• Names, contact details and details including current and past employment of persons responding to the Expression of Interest

This will include:

• Full name
• Current employer
• Position in company
• Employment details
• Work location
• Email address
• Phone number
• Unnamed self-declared diversity data on participants

Purpose

The purpose(s) for which we are processing your personal data is to record and assess participant interest for applying for the Fellowship scheme in order to operate the programme.

Legal basis of processing

The legal basis for processing your personal data is:

• public task: 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, such as the exercise of a function of the Crown, a Minister of the Crown, or a government department; the exercise of a function conferred on a person by an enactment; the exercise of a function of either House of Parliament; or the administration of justice. Collecting the data will allow us to work effectively with participant organisations and enable monitoring and evaluation of impacts of our work.

The legal basis for processing your special category data is:

• processing is of a specific category of personal data and it is necessary for the purposes of identifying or keeping under review the existence or absence of equality of opportunity or treatment between groups of people specified (in paragraph 8(2) of Part 2 of Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 2018) in relation to that category with a view to enabling such equality to be promoted or maintained; and it is not carried out for the purposes of measures or decisions with respect to a particular data subject; and you have not declined consent; and you have not given notice that you do not wish your data to be processed for these purposes; and the processing is not likely to cause substantial damage or substantial distress to an individual; and an appropriate policy document is in place. Self-declared data on the characteristics of racial or ethnic origin of the innovation teams making applications to the grant fund will be collected via a voluntary questionnaire.

Note: Special category data (often known as sensitive personal data) is 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.

Recipients

Your personal data will not be shared outside of DSIT with the exception of the delivery partner recruiting participants to the S&T VC Fellowship under a separate data sharing.

Retention

The personal data of applicants who meet the eligibility criteria will be retained by DSIT for the purposes of identifying current and future applicants for the programme or until September 2025.

International Transfers (include the relevant paras))

Your personal data will be processed in the UK.

As your personal data will be stored on our IT infrastructure it will also be shared with our data processors, currently Microsoft and Amazon Web Services. We do not allow our data processors to use or share this data for their own purposes.

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
• request that any inaccuracies in your personal data are rectified without delay
• request that any incomplete personal data are completed, including by means of a supplementary statement
• 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), request that the processing of your personal data is restricted
• object to the processing of your personal data where it is processed for direct marketing purposes
• object to the processing of your personal data

To exercise your rights please contact the Data Protection Officer using the contact details below.

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

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

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

Email dataprotection@dsit.gov.uk

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: 1 March 2024