Privacy Policy

The Knowledge Transfer Network Ltd, (“we”, “us”, “our”, “Innovate UK Business Connect”) is a company limited by guarantee, formed in April 2014 (no. 8705643), our registered office address is at KTN, Unit 218, Business Design Centre, Upper Street, Islington, London N1 0QH.

Knowledge Transfer Network Ltd is owned by UKRI.

This privacy statement provides details about how your personal information is collected and used. Personal information is any information that identifies you or would enable someone to contact you, such as your name, email address, phone number and other non-public information that is associated with such information.

Please read this Policy carefully, as it sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us (“data”), will be processed by us, in compliance with the UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR).

1. Your rights

The introduction of UK GDPR expands the rights of individuals to control how your personal information is collected and processed. Your principal rights under data protection law are:

• The right to access – you can ask for copies of your personal data; you or any third party acting on your behalf with your authority may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you without charge. We, Innovate UK Business Connect will ask to verify your identity or request evidence from the third party that they are acting on your behalf before releasing any personal data we hold about you.
• The right to rectification – you can ask us to rectify inaccurate personal data and to complete incomplete personal data.
• The right to erasure – you can ask us to erase your personal data.
• The right to restrict processing – you can ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data.
• The right to object to processing – you can object to the processing of your personal data if, processing relies on legitimate interests, processing is for scientific or historical research, processing includes automated decision making and profiling, processing is for direct marketing purposes.
• The right to data portability – you can ask that we transfer your personal data to another organisation or to you.
• The right to withdraw consent – to the extent that the legal basis of our processing of your personal data is consent, you can withdraw that consent.
• Rights relating to complaints and remedies – These rights are subject to certain limitations and exceptions. You can learn more about the rights of data subjects by visiting: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/

You ask any questions about these rights or exercise any of your rights in relation to your personal data by using the contact details set under section 12.

2. Information we may collect from you

When you participate in, access or sign-up to any of our services (including our newsletters, events, competitions, social media, message boards and telephone discussions), create an account using our Innovate UK Business Connect online services, apply to/ participate in Innovate UK programs or otherwise correspond with us, we will receive data about you.

This data may consist of information such as your name, email address, postal address, landline or mobile number. Depending on the activity we may also obtain information about the name and type of your business, and its address.

We also use cookies and collect IP addresses from visitors to our websites (see Section 8 for further details).

We may process your special category data such as ethnic origin, disability details, sexual orientation etc. to measure the impact of our programs.

3. What is the legal basis for doing so

Article 6 (1) (a) – That the data subject has given consent to the processing of their personal data for one or more specific reasons.

Article 6 (1) (b) – processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is party or in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract.

Article 6 (1) (f) – processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the Controller or by a third party, except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject which require Protection of Data, in particular where the data subject is a child.

Where we process your special category data we will rely on your explicit consent to do so.

4. How we use your data

We process personal information for certain legitimate business purposes which include some or all of the following:

• Where the processing enables us to enhance, modify, personalise or otherwise improve our services/communications for the benefit of our members
• To meet our obligations to you
• To provide you with our services, activities or online content and to arrange and facilitate your participation in our programs/projects
• To deal with your requests and enquiries
• To identify and prevent fraud
• To enhance the security of our network and information systems
• To better understand how people interact with our website
• To provide e-communications which we think will be of interest to you
• To determine the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns
• To share promotional communications with you
• To communicate with you and to measure the impact of our programs as well as get a hold of your views about our brands

Whenever we process data for these purposes we will ensure that we always take account of your individual rights. You have the right to object to this processing at any time by contacting dataprotection@iuk.ktn-uk.org. Please bear in mind that if you object this may affect our ability to carry out activities as above for your benefit.

Where we propose using your data for any purpose other than those listed above, we will gain consent from you in advance.

5. Promotional communications

Promotional and marketing communications may be sent to you by various communication channels. In the case of electronic communications, these will be sent to you if you have given express permission to allow Innovate UK Business Connect to use your data for such purposes.

You can instruct us at any time not to process your personal data for the purposes of marketing by changing your preferences on the Innovate UK Business Connect website, or by opting out using the “unsubscribe” link provided on all our marketing electronic communications.

6.Retention & Deletion

We shall not keep data any longer than is necessary from the original purpose of collection and we will delete data in line with our legal obligations.

7. IP address and cookies

An IP address is a number that can uniquely identify a specific computer or other network device on the internet. We may collect information about your computer, including your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration and security. This is statistical data about our users’ browsing actions and patterns, and does not identify any individual.

For the same reason, we may obtain information about your usage of our site by using a cookie file which is stored on the hard drive of your computer. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive. They help us to improve our site and to deliver a better and more personalised service.

They enable us:

• To estimate our audience size and usage pattern
• To store information about your preferences, and so allow us to customise our site according to your individual interests
• To speed up your searches, and
• To recognise you when you return to our site.

You may refuse to accept cookies by activating the setting on your browser which allows you to do so. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our site. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you log-on to our site.

Some cookies are shared with Innovate UK to help us build an understanding of your interests, to help us create a better user experience for you online. Please see clause 8. below for further detail.

8. Disclosure of your data to third parties

i) Major stakeholders & UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) & Innovate UK

As Innovate UK Business Connect, we provide support to our major stakeholders in achieving their objective to stimulate and support UK innovation, including UKRI & Innovate UK. To ensure that our members continue to benefit from our networking and knowledge-sharing activities, we allow these organisations to use the data held by us, in accordance with this Policy.

Marketing Cloud is an engagement and personalisation service used by Innovate UK that helps us communicate with our users. This cookie helps us to understand a user’s journey with us across the innovation system, including UKRI or Innovate UK websites outside of ukri.org. We are able to build a profile of users’ interests and behaviours so that we can understand how to improve our services, and communicate with users in a more relevant and targeted way. The cookie enables us to identify is a user is already known to us, for example if a user is signed up to receive emails from us or has applied for business funding or support.

Please see item 7. above for a link to the full list of cookies on the site.

ii) Other third parties

Only where necessary, we may otherwise disclose your data or may use data processors to handle your personal data on our behalf:

• To contractors, agents and professional advisors where such entities have agreed to provide services to us
• If Innovate UK Business Connect or a substantial part of its assets are transferred to another public body (for example, as a result of a change in the Innovate UK’s reallocation of public funding), in which case personal data held by Innovate UK Business Connect may be among the transferred assets
• If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation (including any reporting obligations we may have to the UK Government), or in order to enforce or apply our and other agreements, or
• To protect the rights, property, or safety of others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

Our website may, from time to time, contain links to and from other websites. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that they have their own privacy policies, and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

9. Where we store your personal data

All personal data you provide to us is stored securely, in accordance with the relevant supervisory authority’s guidelines on the storage of personal data.

We cannot guarantee the security of your data during transmission from you to us, and you transmit such data at your own risk. Once your data has reached our systems, we will use strict procedures and security features to try and prevent unauthorised access.

10. International Transfer of Data

We will only transfer data to countries outside of the UK where they comply with the appropriate safeguards for processing personal data as approved by the Information Commissioner’s Office in line with UK GDPR.

11. Changes to our Privacy Policy

Any changes we may make to this Policy will be posted on this page and, where appropriate, notified to you by e-mail.

12. Data Protection Officer

Any questions or requests regarding this Policy and/or the processing of your data are welcomed and should be addressed to dataprotection@iuk.ktn-uk.org.