University of Wolverhampton - Innovative Product Support Service (Smart Concept Fund)

Privacy Notice

This privacy notice explains how the University of Wolverhampton collects, uses and stores your personal information with particular reference to the part funded business engagement support that is being provided to beneficiaries, through a number of projects, on behalf of the European Structural and Investment Fund (ESIF) and in particular the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)

Who we are

The University of Wolverhampton (‘we’ or ’us’) is a ‘Data Controller’ for the purposes of the Data Protection Legislation (including the Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulation) and we are responsible for, and control, the processing of your personal information.

Your Privacy

We are committed to protecting your privacy. This notice explains how the University and Smart Concept Fund collect and process your personal information for the (part funded) business engagement and support purposes.

Information We Collect

We obtain personal information about you from the following sources:

1. You provided your personal information through our website, i.e. when enquiring/expressing an interest in receiving support from our team as part of the Smart Concept Fund project via the dedicated project website or webpages, or through the University of Wolverhampton Business Solutions Centre referral systems (with your prior consent)
2. Personal and/or business information provided to us via project application forms and additional project forms which are required in order to provide the support as requested and agreed.
3. Completed and/or returned surveys or response/feedback forms including by mail and via electronic means;
4. Information provided to us when you have registered to attend an event;
5. You provided personal information as part of discussions with any of our team or project/university representatives whether in person, via email, telephone or other online communications.

We occasionally may obtain personal information from a small number of third party sources:

1. If you have opted in to receiving marketing from our group of partners, or have consented to your information being shared with us by our partners. These partners include The Black Country Consortium, The Black Country Growth Hub, The Marches Growth Hub, The Black Country Chamber of Commerce, Wolverhampton City Council, Sandwell and Dudley Council, Shropshire County Council and Walsall Council.  

We may process the following personal information about you:

1. Your title and full name.
2. Your business details, including company address, company telephone/mobile number, and company email address, position and organisation.
3. Gender, Age and Special Categories of personal data, such as information about your ethnic origin would only be processed where you have provided it yourself (with your consent), as a contractual requirement of taking part in the Smart Concept Fund project or any additional European Regional Development Funded (ERDF) project.
4. Specified business financial information (with your consent) will only be shared with the managing authority ‘The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’ (MHCLG) in order to meet and satisfy our European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) contractual obligations.    

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How We Use and/or Process Your Data

We collect limited and specified personal information to enable us to deliver business support services, to comply with our legal obligations from external funding bodies (ERDF/MHCLG) and to better understand our community so that we can better meet your needs and improve our services.

We may process your personal information for the following purposes:

1. Administrative purposes:

1. To verify your identity and establish eligibility to be able to provide you with an agreed business support service through the Smart Concept Fund project or allow your business to engage with one of our ERDF or other funded projects.
2. To keep a record of key communications between you, the business you represent and our project representatives to comply with our contractual obligations.
3. To process your registration.

1. Communications
2. We may, from time to time, contact you by email, post or telephone to pursue the purposes mentioned above and in particular for the following reasons:

1. To identify and advise you of other relevant business opportunities where there is mutual benefit to both parties – i.e. opportunities for collaboration
2. To keep you up to date with relevant events and activities at the University of Wolverhampton;
3. To share relevant news and achievements of the University and its staff/student body, including research and services;
4. Invite you to business events, which may be of interest to you;
5. To keep you up to date with other relevant information, which we think may be of interest to you

If you would like to opt-out of the above Communications, please let us know. See ‘How to Contact Us’ below for further information.

Who your information may be shared with

Your personal information is held within secure project records both physically (paper) and electronically. We may disclose your personal data to other departments within the University of Wolverhampton, third parties working in partnership with or on behalf of the University (for example, for evaluation purposes), and/or Government Agencies (MHCLG) and the European Commission (EC) or where required to do so by law in order to comply with our contractual obligations.

We do not transfer your personal information to third parties outside the EEA or to territories without adequate levels of protection. Where personal data is processed by a third party, we take reasonable steps to ensure that the data is processed strictly according to the instructions of the University, for the relevant purposes only, in accordance with our contractual retention obligations and is securely destroyed or returned upon completion/termination. We take reasonable steps to ensure that third party processors are subject to written legal obligations in respect of data protection and the duty of confidentiality.

We do not sell or rent any personal information or data supplied by you. We may compile aggregate statistics and provide them to third parties, but we do not include personal information that identifies individual users.

Retention

We will only retain your personal information in line with our contractual obligations.

We are contractually obliged to maintain your personal information in our databases but you do have the right to request that any of your records are removed.  As this would effectively remove your business, along with the attendant outputs, from the project, you will then become ineligible for support.  Accordingly you will become responsible for reimbursing the Smart Concept Fund project with the full cost of the support you had received.

If you would like to opt-out of any or all communications from the University of Wolverhampton Business Solutions and its Centres, please see ‘How to Contact Us’ and ‘Rights of Data Subjects’ below for further information

Rights of Data Subjects

1. Right to request a copy of your information

You can request a copy of your information which we hold (this is known as a subject access request). If you would like a copy of some or all of it, please visit the University of Wolverhampton Data Protection web pages.

1. Right to correct mistakes in your information

You can require us to correct any mistakes in your information which we hold free of charge. If you would like to do so, please write to us (see ‘Contact Us’ below) and provide us with enough information to identify you, as well as, inform us of the information that is incorrect and what it should be replaced with.

1. Right to ask us to stop contacting you with direct marketing

Lawful basis for processing

The Smart Concept Fund Project, the University of Wolverhampton, Business Solutions and its Centres may rely on one or multiple grounds for processing your personal data including:

1. You have provided consent for the processing;
2. There is a contractual commitment to provide the services and, therefore, processing is necessary to meet those contractual obligations;
3. The information is available to the public at large
4. Public interest
5. The processing is necessary for the purposes of legitimate interests of the University or other third parties and does not affect the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individuals concerned.

How to Contact Us

Should you have any queries, suggestions or issues please do not hesitate to contact the project office on [01902 321764], alana.correa@wlv.ac.uk or you can write to us at the following address:

Smart Concept Fund Project

Faculty of Science & Engineering, PB005

University of Wolverhampton

Wolverhampton Science Park

Wolverhampton

WV10 9RU

If you have any concerns or believe that your personal information is being handled in a manner which is contrary to statutory requirements, you may wish to contact the University of Wolverhampton’s Data Protection Officer via dataprotection@wlv.ac.uk  or complain to the ICO via www.ico.org.uk

Revisions to the Privacy Policy

We may revise this privacy policy at any time in response to changes in the law or other factors. We encourage you to periodically visit this page to review the most current policy, or obtain a copy by contacting us directly.