Privacy policy | Terms of use

The content of this website is the sole property of The Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS), and all intellectual property rights existing in this site (including but not exclusively any copyright and design rights) belong exclusively to FENS.

The statement of copyright ownership must remain on all reproductions of material downloaded from this site. The website and the logo device are the sole property of FENS.

Any information acquired by FENS through your use of this website will be processed in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)(1)

Data Protection Notice

FENS is responsible for how your personal data (2) is stored and processed and for what purposes. FENS’ member societies are responsible for the data they gather from their members and personal data is shared with FENS only after their members have expressed consent.

What data & how it is collected

In order to provide you with access to FENS’ services or information, we require certain personal details about you. This may include your name, postal address, gender, telephone number, email address and your national / single discipline society membership number.

We collect information in the following ways:

  • Via online forms, when you become a FENS member, update your personal details, send an enquiry via the website or register for a meeting;
  • From our member societies, when adding new FENS members to our database;
  • When you take part in surveys or questionnaires;
  • When you apply to take part in a school, training course, conference or any other activity related to FENS;
  • When you sign up to receive our News Alert.

Why your personal data is processed

FENS collects and processes your personal data for the following purposes:

  • To administer membership records;
  • To provide member benefits and services;
  • To answer your enquiries;
  • To keep you updated on relevant activities and news;
  • To carry out the administration related to your attendance of meetings, schools, training courses;
  • To administer stipends and grant applications.

With whom your data is shared

Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential and will be shared only as set out in this section.

  • We use trusted third-party providers to support our management of your data and to contact you for the purposes outlined in the previous section. We have verified that all of these third parties act in compliance with the GDPR and ensure that we only share the data necessary for the task.
  • Your personal data may be shared with members of the FENS staff and committee members in order to meet our commitments to you by way of membership services, answering your enquiries or giving you access to opportunities related to FENS activities.
  • If you serve on any FENS committee or take on any duty or role within FENS, your personal data may be shared with other members of FENS.

How long do we keep your personal data for

Our data management policy (3)sets out the period of time we keep your data, depending on the purpose for which it was collected:

  • Member management: four years following cessation of membership.
  • Delegate management (i.e. applicants and participants in FENS-organised activities): four years after the event has taken place.
  • Committee member data management: names and email addresses of committee members are recorded permanently. Other personal information is kept for four years after the individual has left their post.
  • Applicants for prizes, bursaries, funding, job openings or other opportunities where a selection process is involved: personal data of unsuccessful candidates is kept for four years after the selection has taken place.
  • Service user data: If you are a customer (e.g. you advertise a job position or an award), details will be kept in our accounts for four years.
  • Mailing list management: you can choose to unsubscribe from FENS mailing lists at any time, at which point your data will be deleted.

If you have any questions about FENS data management policy or wish to be removed from the FENS database, you can contact the FENS office at any time.

Your legal rights

Your privacy is very important to us, which is why we make sure you are always in control of what we do with your personal information.

FENS complies with the obligations under GDPR by:

  • Keeping your personal data up to date and correcting inaccuracies as requested;
  • Storing and destroying it securely;
  • Protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure;
  • Ensuring that appropriate technical and organisational measures are in place to protect personal data.

Unless subject to an exemption under the GDPR, you have the following rights with respect to your personal data:

  • The right to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you (‘subject access request’);
  • The ability to change any details we hold about you if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date (‘the right to rectification’). You can do this yourself by logging in to your member profile and editing your membership information or by contacting the FENS Office;
  • The right to request your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary for FENS to retain such data (‘the right to be forgotten’);
  • If the processing in question is based on consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time;
  • The right to request that FENS, where possible, transmits your data directly to another data controller (‘the right to data portability’);
  • The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request that a restriction is placed on further processing;
  • Where processing is based on legitimate interests, you have the right to object to the processing of personal data.

Photography and filming

Photography, audio and video recordings may be produced by FENS or its affiliates during FENS’ activities (schools, training courses, conferences, etc.) and may be used to generate news, promotional material, online publications or printed promotional materials.

Persons participating in FENS’ activities who do not wish for their image or recording to be used for any of the aforementioned purposes should inform the FENS office (office@fens.org).

FENS will always request permission from speakers in any FENS activity before recording presentations by video for any of the purposes listed above. Pictures will be taken and shared online only with the speakers’ permission.

Contact Details

To exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints, please contact the FENS Office: office@fens.org

 

(1) Regulation (EU) 2016/679 – on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data.

(2) Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data.

(3) Following the data retention period, minimal identifying information (name, ORCID ID, date of participation) will be stored in a centralised internal reference document accessible only to the FENS administration for the purpose of processing future activities.