Welcome to the Privacy Notice of RE-Place

 

Our Privacy Notice explains to you in a clear, transparent and simple yet correct way when, why and how RE-Place processes personal data. This Privacy Notice also governs our relationship as data controller and data subjects with regard to the processing of your personal data.

When you decide to provide us with your personal data, you are invited to carefully read through this Privacy Notice. We will ask you to explicitly mark your agreement with this Privacy Notice when you create an account on the RE-Place website.

The data will be used in accordance with the consents that you have given, the law of 30 July 2018 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and the European Regulation 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 (entered into force on 25 May 2018) on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (GDPR).

This Privacy Notice is also intended to assist you in making informed decisions when using our website. Please take a minute to read and understand it and please note that it should be read in conjunction with our General Terms and Conditions and our Cookie Policy.

 

About RE-Place

The RE-Place project, coordinated by Sciensano and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, is an initiative financed by the Flemish and Brussels governments in order to stimulate the use of alternative methods to animal testing.

New and innovative technologies continue to be developed across the life sciences. In recent years computer modelling, artificial intelligence, sophisticated cell cultures, organ-on-a-chip and many more technologies have tremendously advanced. These technologies are now also referred to as “New Approach Methodologies (NAMs)”.

In regulatory toxicology, NAMs are successfully applied for different endpoints, especially in the field of local toxicity, thereby resulting in the use of less or even no experimental animals. For systemic toxicity, the situation is more complex. The same is true for biomedical research, where despite the availability of cutting-edge technologies at (inter)national level, animal experimentation is needed in most cases. Nevertheless, NAMs play a very valuable role in tackling these scientific queries, both as stand-alone or when combined with animal experimentation.

As the development and practical use of NAMs are continuously evolving, it may be difficult for (young) scientists to find relevant information on NAMs. In order to facilitate access to this type of information, the Flemish government initiated the project “RE-Place” in 2017 which aims to centralize the existing expertise on NAMs in Belgium in one database. Later on, the Brussels government joined this project.

The RE-Place database will not only provide a reliable overview of different NAMs, but also the names of the experts and research centres where these techniques can be learned.

 

1. What is your personal data?

Personal data relates to a living individual who is identified or can be identified from that data. Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information in the Data Controller’s possession or likely to come into such possession.

 

2. What data do we collect?

In reference to the website (www.RE-Place.be) and its database, RE-Place will collect the information which is necessary to establish the RE-Place database. This concerns the following (personal) data:

  • your name and e-mail address, needed when you create an account on the RE-Place website;
  • the name of the organisation(s) for which you work and the specific (research) department and/or service, and
  • a brief overview of the NAMs in which you have expertise. This may include following details: name (and acronym) of the method, the scope for which the method is being used, a short description and the associated keywords, required laboratory equipment, advantages and disadvantages linked to the use of the method, its future potential and any type of additional information such as references. Please note that not all of the requested information mentioned above is mandatory. You can submit information on all methods in which you have experience. These do not have to be developed by yourself, your (research)group or your organisation. The RE-Place project is collecting information on all the methods that are currently being used in Belgium, and what is your personal experience with them.

 

3. Who is collecting your data?

The RE-Place project is conducted by Sciensano and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. They are the joint data controllers (“Data Controller”) for the purposes of the act for the RE-Place project.

 

4. How and why we collect and use your personal data?

When registering to the RE-Place website, you are requested to complete the abovementioned personal data (name, e-mail address, organisation/employers’ details, the NAMs in which you have experience). The reason for which we collect this data is to have an overview of the experts who are currently working with NAMs in Belgium.

Expertise on the use of NAMs

After creating an account on the RE-Place website, you can submit 1 or more NAMs. For each submitted method, you can indicate whether it may be associated with your name and/or the name of your organisation.

  • If you indicate ‘Yes’, your name and e-mail address will be visible on the RE-Place website, and other researchers are then able to contact you in case they want to know more about your submitted NAMs, e.g. to implement your NAMs in their lab or for possible collaborations.
  • If you indicate ‘No’, your name and e-mail address will not be visible on the RE-Place website, but you may receive queries from other researchers by the RE-Place team (forwarded e-mails). In that case, your personal details are not disclosed, but you are still kept in the loop in case interested parties have questions about your expertise. You can decide yourself whether or not to respond to these queries.

You can change your preference to display your name, e-mail address and the name of your organisation(s) per submitted NAMs at any given time point in the 6th step of the online tool ‘Privacy’. The changes will be directly implemented.

Extended features

Through the tabs ‘My Groups’ and ‘My Organisation’, it will be possible for a (research) group to create a representative ‘Group’ on the RE-Place website, or for an organisation to create a representative ‘Organisation’ on the RE-Place website. For the functioning of these features, users who are already registered on the RE-Place website might see following of your personal data:

  • your name via the function ‘Invite existing RE-Place Members’,
  • your name and/or e-mail address and/or submitted NAMs for all the members of your ‘Group’ or within your ‘Organisation’.
  1. ‘My Groups’

In a ‘Group’ there are two roles: a member and an administrator. Administrators can invite people to become a member of a ‘Group’, change their role in the system, delete users, and have access to the methods that are submitted within that particular ‘Group’. Administrators are notified when a member submits a method to the RE-Place database, and they have the opportunity to review the content before it is included in the database. Methods can be reviewed by clicking on the title of the methods, modified via clicking the button ‘Update’ and approved by clicking the corresponding ‘Approve’ button. If a member of the ‘Group’ leaves, the administrator can also change the name of the contact of the methods he/she submitted within that ‘Group’. All methods that are submitted within a ‘Group’ will thus remain linked to that ‘Group’, also when the member who submitted it, leaves the ‘Group’.

  1. ‘My Organisation’

In case your organisation decides it is valuable to assign a dedicated contact person to your organisation on the RE-Place website, the name of that contact person will be displayed in this tab. He/she will be able to approve new accounts and ‘Groups’ linked to the organisation. He/she will be notified once new content is submitted which is linked to the organisation.

Please note you are not obliged to create or join a ‘Group’ and/or ‘Organisation’, you can also submit methods without linking them to a ‘Group’ and/or ‘Organisation’.

By creating an account on the RE-Place website and ticking the consent box, you agree to the use of your (personal) data as described in this Privacy Notice. This data is thus collected based on your informed consent when registering.

Do not hesitate to contact the RE-Place team (info@RE-Place.be) for more information.

 

5. Sharing of your information

RE-Place will not rent or sell your information to third parties. RE-Place may, however, combine or delete certain parts of the data to anonymize information or work with aggregated data so that the information can no longer be associated with one person.

The collected information (both personal data as well as the submitted methods) will only be used for the intended purposes, namely to stimulate the use of these methods and to disseminate this information. For this purpose, this personal data may be shared with the funders of the project, namely the Flemish and Brussels government, and other potential EU partners, such as the European Commission.

 

6. Storage and protection of your personal information

Information collected by RE-Place is stored and processed locally and within the European Union at Combell. Combell is the market leader in the Benelux for online hosting services. Its corporate office is located at the Skaldenstraat 121, 9042 Gent, Belgium and they are registered in the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises under the number 0541.977.701. The information transmitted to RE-Place will be exclusively accessible to the responsible persons working at Sciensano and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, who need access to this information in order to perform their professional tasks.

RE-Place will retain your personal data until the end of the project. This is currently estimated at 2024, unless the project is extended by additional funding.

 

7. Reporting Fraud

Sciensano, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and RE-Place are committed to ensuring your information is secure. As part of our efforts to protect your information, RE-Place will never send you e-mails asking for your personal data or for your registered password (if you are a registered user).

If you do receive such an email or are asked to disclose this information by someone claiming to work for RE-Place, please report the communication to us using the following methods:

  • send an email to info@RE-Place.be, info@sciensano.be or info@vub.ac.be
  • in writing to us at our registered address:
    • Sciensano, Rue Juliette Wytsman 14, 1050 Ixelles, Belgium
    • Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels, Belgium.

 

8. Your choices regarding your information

In general

It is your right to ask RE-Place whether your personal information has been processed by us. In order to exercise this right, you must address a formal request to RE-Place, clearly specifying what you want to consult, rectify or delete. The request must be dated, signed and accompanied by a copy of the front of your ID.

You have the right to request access, rectification and erasure of your personal data, object to the use of it, restrict the use of it and receive your personal data held by us.

In relation to the RE-Place website

On the RE-Place website, it is possible to submit methods and link them with your name and/or the name of your organisation where you are employed. If you agree to this, your name and/or the name of your organisation will be displayed on the RE-Place website. You can modify this at any given time point on by editing the submitted method via the 6th step of the online tool called ‘Privacy’. This is also possible when your method is already included in the RE-Place database.

You can request the RE-Place team (info@RE-Place.be) to remove your account and/or the methods you have submitted to the database. This request must contain: (1) your name and e-mail address used to create an account on the RE-Place website, and (2) the titles of the methods and their corresponding URLs you want to delete. This request must be dated, signed and accompanied by a copy of the front of your ID including your name. If those requirements are met, RE-Place will comply with your request as quickly as possible and report back to you. The requested data will be deleted, except methods which were submitted as part of a ‘Group’ or an ‘Organisation’ (see point 4) where you are listed as a ‘member’ and not as an ‘administrator’. In that particular case, methods will remain linked to that ‘Group’ and/or ‘Organisation’ and a new contact person will be assigned by the ‘administrator’ of your ‘Group’/’Organisation’. In case you do not agree, you should contact the administrator of your ‘Group’ and/or ‘Organisation’. Do not hesitate to contact info@RE-Place.be for more information.

 

9. How about cookies?

The website uses "cookies", which are small information files that are temporarily or permanently stored by the server of a website via the browser on your computer or device and which simplify, complete and personalise the use of the website.

You can disable the storage of cookies in your browser or delete stored cookies, but this might lead to a reduced functionality, delay or unusability of certain parts of the website.

For more information about cookies and how you can delete them depending on the type of browser you use, we would like to refer you to the following website: www.allaboutcookies.org.

 

10. Google Analytics

The website uses Google Analytics. This web analysis service, which is provided by Google Inc. ("Google"), uses analytical cookies. The information generated by the cookies about a visitor's use of the website, is transmitted with the visitor's IP address to and stored by Google.

Google may use this information for the following purposes:

  1. Provide advertising activity reports to advertisers and websites that host the advertisements and ensure that those website publishers are paid for
  2. Help website and app owners who use Google Analytics to understand how visitors interact with their sites or apps
  3. Detect and prevent fraud and other security risks to protect users and partners
  4. Comply with its legal obligations
  5. Improve its products.

For all these activities, except for point 2, Google is responsible for the processing of data and the processing of data which it collects about your use of the website it is hence the responsibility of Google.

How can you manage which information is sent to Google?

Here are some tips on how you can manage which type of information is shared by your web browser when you visit the website:

  • If you do not want that Google Analytics is being used in your browser, you can install the browser add-on for Google Analytics. More information about Google Analytics and privacy.
  • When you are logged into your Google Account, depending on your account settings, you can view and edit certain information Google collects from sites and apps you visit.
  • Chrome incognito mode allows you to browse the web without capturing web pages and files into your browser history. Cookies are deleted after you close all incognito windows and tabs. Your bookmarks and settings are saved until you delete them.
  • By using the advertising settings you can manage which Google advertisement are displayed on the internet for you. You can learn how ads are selected for you, opt out on the personalization of advertisements, and block specific advertisers. Learn more about advertisements.

 

11. How to contact us?

If you have any questions regarding this privacy notice, your rights regarding your personal data or the processing activities of RE-Place in reference to the online contact form, you can contact us at the following email address: info@RE-Place.be, via 02 642 52 52 or in writing via the contact details of the coordinators of the project:

 

You can contact the DPO of the Controllers using the contact information below:

You also have the right to contact a national supervising authority, In Belgium you can contact: