The community for science education in Europe

INFORMATION NOTICE

Please read the following Disclaimer and Privacy Notice carefully as they contain important information about your rights and responsibilities. By registering on the website, you will be asked to consent to these policies.

DISCLAIMER OF CONTENT

European Schoolnet (legal name: EUN Partnership aisbl, hereinafter called European Schoolnet), the coordinator of the Scientix 4 project, funded until the 31st March 2023 by the European Union’s H2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement N. 101000063), maintains this public portal at www.scientix.eu to inform the public, teachers, stakeholders, partners, and others interested in Scientix actions and initiatives. After the completion of Scientix 4, the website will continue to be managed and maintained by European Schoolnet, which will ensure the continuation of the project’s tasks and goals. Contact information of European Schoolnet can be found below.

European Schoolnet is established in Brussels, Belgium, and Belgian laws apply to any use of the website.

We strive to keep the information on this website as accurate and timely as possible. If errors are brought to our attention (at scientix@eun.org) we will correct them, but we will accept no liability or responsibility whatsoever with regard to the use of the information on this website or any linked external sites. The content of the website is the sole responsibility of European Schoolnet and it does not represent the opinion of the European Commission (EC), and the EC is not responsible for any use that might be made of information contained.

It is our goal to minimize disruption caused by technical errors. However, European Schoolnet accepts no liability/responsibility as we cannot guarantee that our service will not be interrupted.

European Schoolnet reserves the right, at its discretion, to suspend, change, modify, add or remove (portions of) the website at any time, including any materials which may have been made available by content contributors.

COPYRIGHT

We take every measure possible to ensure that all copyrights are respected. If you notice a copyright infringement, please notify us as soon as possible.

Several sections of this site make use of web feed technologies to present content that may originate from several third-party websites which are relevant to the projects listed on the website (e.g. RSS or Twitter feeds). European Schoolnet collects and formats this data. However, use of this content may be subject to different copyright/terms of use. Please refer to the portal to which the service links if you wish to use content from third-party sites.

Copyright details of the items listed in the Scientix resources library (teaching materials, reports, training courses) are included in their descriptions. Please refer to these copyright details for further information.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

© Scientix - All right reserved. Except where otherwise stated, content made available either by European Schoolnet or users on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0). Licensing under Creative Commons licenses does not itself affect the ownership of the copyright. Content from third party websites is subject to their own copyright restrictions, please refer to the website of origin for more information.

TRADEMARKS AND LOGOS

Scientix ® - is a European Union trademark registered by the European Union Intellectual Property Office under the name of European Schoolnet. Please note that use of the website does not imply any right or license to use any of the logos or trademarks that appear on the site. Such usage is always subject to the express written approval of the owner of the logo or trademark. Breach of this requirement may involve the imposition of penalties or damages against the infringer.

PRIVACY NOTICE

1. INTRODUCTION

European Schoolnet is developing this website which is subject to the Privacy Notice set out below.

European Schoolnet takes the protection of your privacy seriously. We exclusively collect, store and retain our users' personal data to provide the best possible service and treat this data with the utmost care in accordance with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ¹. This Privacy Notice outlines the policies by which the Scientix website collects, manages, and uses the data provided to us by users, and how users of the website may exercise their data protection rights. Registration on the Scientix website and/or its services indicates that you have accepted this Privacy Notice and agreed to abide by it.

Although it is possible to browse most of the website without providing any personal information, in some cases such information is required in order to provide additional online services, such as information and communication services.

The website is controlled by EUN Partnership aisbl, the legal name for European Schoolnet. Contact information can be found below. European Schoolnet is responsible (i.e., the data "controller") for processing your personal data as explained in this Privacy Notice.

2. WHEN DO WE COLLECT AND PROCESS YOUR PERSONAL DATA?

You directly provide European Schoolnet with most of the personal data we collect through the Scientix website. We collect your personal data when you:

• Visit the Scientix website.
• Sign up for the Scientix Digest and Newsletter.
• Voluntarily register for events/webinars/conferences/competitions/courses announced on the Scientix website from time to time.
• Participate in surveys and questionnaires which are conducted through this website from time to time.
• Fill in the forms to publish news, events, and projects on the Scientix website.
• Register for the Scientix website and create an account.
• Propose a topic for the Scientix blog or leave a response to a published Scientix blog article.
• Contribute to the Scientix website through the Scientix Forum.
• Submit resources to the Scientix Resource Repository.
• Create an account in the Scientix Moodle.
• Contact us directly via social media, phone, or e-mail.

3. WHAT PERSONAL DATA DO WE PROCESS AND WHY?

When you visit the Scientix website and engage in one of the services described in Section 2, we will collect and use your personal data to:

• Improve the Scientix website’s content and the overall user experience.
• Detect security incidents, protect against malicious activity, and fix system errors.
• Send you the Scientix Digest and Newsletter.
• Assist you in the registration for events/webinars/conferences/competitions/courses.
• Allow you to participate in surveys and questionnaires.
• Publish your news, events, and projects on the website.
• Allow you to contribute to the Scientix website through the Scientix Forum, submitting resources to the Scientix Resource Repository and commenting and rating published resources, as well as commenting on the Scientix Blog.
• Allowing you to use the Scientix Moodle.
• Facilitate the communication between you and us.

To achieve the above-mentioned purposes, we process the following personal data in the following circumstances:

1. Website visits

As a general policy, you are not required to disclose your personal data as a condition of using the Scientix website. No basic identity information, such as your name, postal address, or email address is automatically collected from your visit to the website. However, we may automatically collect personal data, including technical information and information about your visit, from each of your visits to our website, as detailed in point 9 below.

2. Subscription to our newsletters

When you visit our website, you can sign up for our two newsletters: the Scientix Digest and the Scientix Newsletter.

When you sign up for these newsletters, the website requires you to submit the following personal data as part of the registration process: first name, last name, email address.

You will also be asked to consent to this Privacy Notice. You will always have the opportunity to unsubscribe from the Scientix Digest and Scientix Newsletter by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of any email you receive from us, or by contacting us at privacy@eun.org. If you no longer receive any newsletters from us, we delete your data.

We use MailerLite, a third-party service provider (i.e. ‘’data processor’’) to disseminate the Scientix Newsletters and manage the Scientix Newsletter’s subscribers lists. The processing of your personal data for the purposes of sending out these newsletters will be subject to this Privacy Notice as well as to the terms and conditions, including the Data Processing Addendum of MailerLite: https://www.mailerlite.com/legal/privacy-policy

3. Registration for events/webinars/conferences/competitions/courses

When you visit the Scientix website, you may want to register to the events, webinars, conferences, competitions, and courses organized by European Schoolnet, and/or its private spaces/projects and/or members/partners of Scientix, which are promoted from time to time on this website. The types of personal data collected when you register for the events, webinars, conferences, competitions, or courses are described in their own privacy statements. The privacy statements will give you details of the purpose and legal grounds of the processing, who will have access to your personal data, and the period of time for which the data will be kept. In addition, the privacy statements for each event/webinar/conference/competition/course will detail your rights in respect of the data we collect, where you can get further information on the privacy statements, and the official organizations to which you can complain in the event that you feel that your data protection rights have been infringed.

We use a third-party service provider (i.e. ‘’data processor’’), Microsoft Teams to organize our online events. MS Teams is a feature of Microsoft 365. The processing of your personal data for the purposes of participating in our online events will be subject to the privacy statement of each event as well as to the terms and conditions of https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-privacy.

We use Microsoft Forms and/or Google Forms to collect and process the data you submit to register for events/webinars/conferences/competitions/courses organized by European Schoolnet. In addition to the own privacy statement for each registration form, the processing of your personal data may also be subject to the privacy statement of Microsoft and/or Google Forms, which can be consulted at https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement and/or https://policies.google.com/terms.

4. Participation in surveys and questionnaires

You may be invited to participate via the website in surveys and questionnaires which we may launch from time to time. These surveys and questionnaires will include their own privacy policy which will describe the type of personal data we will collect, the purpose, and legal grounds of the processing, who will have access to the data, and the period of time for which the data will be kept.

The privacy policy will also detail your rights in respect of the data we collect, and where you can get further information on the privacy policy and the official organizations to which you can complain in the event that you feel that your data rights have been infringed.

We use Survey Monkey, a third-party service provider (i.e. ‘’data processor”) to process our surveys and questionnaires and this processing may additionally be subject to its own terms and conditions which can be accessed at https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/legal/privacy-policy/.

In addition, we use Microsoft Forms and Google Forms to process some of our surveys and questionnaires. The privacy statements for each of these third-party service providers can be found under point 3 above.

5. Submission of news, projects, and events to be published on the website

Scientix offers other organizations, apart from European Schoolnet, the possibility to disseminate news, events, and projects on the Scientix website. To do so, interested stakeholders are invited to fill in the respective news, events, and project submission forms. Through these submission forms, your contact details (name, surname, and email), as well as any other type of personal identifiable information you voluntarily disclose when providing details of your proposed news, projects, and events, will be collected and processed. You will also be asked to consent to this Privacy Notice.

We use Google Forms and SurveyMonkey, third-party service providers (i.e. ‘’data processors”), to process submission forms for news and events (Google Forms) and projects (SurveyMonkey) through this website. These third-party tools may, therefore, collect, store, and/or transfer personally identifiable information in accordance with their own terms and conditions which can be found at https://policies.google.com/terms and https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/legal/privacy/.

6. Registration to the Scientix website

To join the Scientix community and connect with other likeminded educators and STEM enthusiasts, users may register here: https://www.scientix.eu/register. Registered users can actively contribute to the Scientix website by submitting resources to the Scientix Resource Repository, publishing posts, commenting and rating published resources, and participating in discussions in the Scientix Fora.

During the registration process, you will be requested to confirm you have consented to this Privacy Notice.

To best serve its users, the Scientix website requires users to submit the following information as a part of the registration process: username, first name, last name, email.

Registered users’ information (except for the email addresses users provide at their registration) is visible to all users on the organization page. Any personal data mentioned in any comment or review/rating voluntarily made by a registered user is public, i.e. visible to the website users when viewing the commented or reviewed item and also retrievable through search engines. Registered users’ information is also displayed in the Public Profiles Directory tool of the Scientix website.

During the registration process, users will be asked to specify a unique username and corresponding password. Using this username/password combination, users may access their accounts and use the restricted area of the site. Users can edit or delete their profile information at any time. The personal data collected from the users who voluntarily edit their profile is as follows: country, mother tongue, other languages, website, picture, and organization.

7. Scientix Blog

The Scientix Blog allows people connected to Scientix to publish personal stories on science education in Europe and beyond. To publish articles on the Scientix Blog, you are requested to fill in an online submission form and submit the following personal data: email, name, surname, country, and professional position. By agreeing to the Terms and Conditions indicated in the Scientix Blog online submission form, you consent to the processing of your personal data, in addition to the publication of your name.

8. Scientix Moodle

Scientix offers a Moodle platform to teachers all around Europe and the world, to facilitate remote teaching and learning. Teachers can use the Scientix Moodle to create their own courses, as well as enroll in existing courses, created by other teachers.

To use the Scientix Moodle, you are requested to create an account and submit the following personal data: email address, name and surname. The submission of other personal data such as country and/or city/town is optional. European Schoolnet will have access to account information provided by the user and can modify and/or delete information upon request. During the registration process, you will be requested to confirm you have consented to this Privacy Notice, and hence to the processing and use of your personal data as detailed below.

Concerning the email address you provide when registering to the Scientix Moodle, this is only accessible to European Schoolnet, and will be used for the following purposes: sending you a confirmation email to notify you of your accounts’ approval; confirming your enrollment in Moodle courses; and allowing you to reset your password, upon your request.

Concerning your name and surname, this information is visible to all users visiting the Moodle page, under online users, while you are online and during the five minutes after you log out. When you enroll in a course, your name and surname is also visible to the course creator. In addition, if you participate in course chats and discussions, your name and surname will also be displayed to registered users and guest visitors accessing such forums. If you create a course, your name and surname will also be visible to all users registered to the Scientix Moodle, as well as users logging in as guests.

In addition, by clicking to your name, registered users can send you direct messages and access your Scientix Moodle profile. Users have the option to display the following categories of personal data, besides their name and surname, in their profiles: city/town, country and profile image. Users can edit or delete their profile information at any time.

We use Moodle, a third-party service provider (i.e. ‘’data processor’’) to host the Scientix Moodle. The processing of your personal data for the purposes detailed above is subject to this Privacy Notice as well as to the Privacy Notice of Moodle, https://moodle.com/privacy-notice/

9. Contacting European Schoolnet

We also collect personal data such as your full name, email, professional title, organization name, and any other personal data you choose to share when you communicate with us through social media, phone or e-mail. If you choose to contact us directly, we will only use the personal data you have provided us with for the purposes of responding to your message and, in case, providing the service you require.

10. Other forms of collection / Information collected by automated means

Personal data such as your IP address, internet service provider (ISP), web browser, operating system, approximate times of use, referring site, specific user interactions with the system's functionality and any similar data exchanged between a user's computer and the servers of the Scientix website will be collected. These will not be linked to specific user accounts. We use Google Analytics for this (see Section 11 below). This information is accessible only to the systems administrators of European Schoolnet and is used only to ensure the broadest compatibility and connectivity between users and the Scientix website, and to take appropriate action in case of unlawful or inappropriate behavior.

Finally, aggregated statistics will be collected regularly, including, but not limited to, the number of users during a specific period, the preferred subjects and/or countries chosen by teachers or other types of users, and account usage (see also Section 12 below).

Some parts of our website use the video services of YouTube. YouTube may use cookies to collect usage and user-related information about your visit to the Scientix website. No personal data is automatically transmitted to YouTube when you visit the Scientix website.

4. WHO DO WE SHARE YOUR DATA WITH?

In principle, we will not share your personal data with anyone except European Schoolnet designated staff and third parties listed under this Privacy Notice. European Schoolnet has access to full account information and can modify and/or delete information as needed to maintain the integrity of the user database or to ensure the proper operation of the Scientix website.

European Schoolnet does not sell your personal data to third parties. Apart from the third parties referred to by this Privacy Notice, no third parties will receive your data, unless this is explicitly disclosed to you in advance in a separate privacy policy or we are required to do so by law, e.g., in the framework of a judicial inquiry or at the request of the competent legal authorities. Upon request, data may be transferred in an anonymous way to third parties for research purposes.

The third-party service providers process your personal data only on behalf of European Schoolnet. When we use a third-party service provider, we only disclose personal data that is necessary for them to provide their services. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.

Some of your personal data submitted by the registered users to the Scientix website as specified under points 3.6, 3.7, and 3.8 above will be displayed in the public area of the Scientix website, meaning such data is freely accessible on the Internet. In this case, the user has the right to ask for their data to be deleted as explained under Section 8.

5. DATA TRANSFERS

Your personal data may be transferred to and stored at a destination outside the European Union (''EU'')/European Economic Area (''EEA'') in which our third-party service providers specified in this Privacy Notice are located or have servers. We ensure that the recipient of your personal data offers an adequate level of protection, by engaging in data processing agreements with our third-party service providers, which provide for standard contractual clauses for the transfer of data as approved by the European Commission.

Your personal data may also be accessible to parties outside the EU/EEA via European Schoolnet’s social media pages, links to which are embedded in this website. An exception might also be where you are located outside the EU/ EEA, and we need to follow up with you regarding your submission. Apart from the above-mentioned circumstances, your personal data are not sent outside the EU/EEA by us.

6. THE LEGAL BASIS OF DATA PROTECTION

In terms of personal data processing activities for the purpose of facilitating

In terms of personal data processing activities for the purpose of facilitating communication between you and us, we rely on our legitimate interest to be able to respond to requests, questions, or remarks when you contact us via social media, phone or e-mail.

In terms of personal data processing activities for the purpose of improving the Scientix website’s content and the overall experience, we rely on our own legitimate interest in providing an interesting online space to our visitors.

In terms of personal data processing activities for the purposes of detecting and preventing malware, illegal content, and other types of misuse, we rely on our legitimate interest to keep our online presence safe.

When you register for the Scientix website, the Scientix Blog, the Scientix Digest, the Scientix Moodle and the Scientix Newsletter, or any event/webinar/conference/competition/course promoted on this website, contribute to the various platforms and discussion tools of the Scientix website, participate in surveys/questionnaires, and submit news, projects and events to be published on the website, your consent serves as the legal basis for our processing of your personal data.

If you consent to us processing your personal information, please note that you may withdraw this consent at any time. If you have problems withdrawing your earlier given consent, you can contact us as indicated in Section 14 below.

Please note that your consent can only be withdrawn with future effect, and such a withdrawal does not have any influence on the lawfulness of past processing. In some cases, we may be entitled despite your withdrawal to continue to process your personal information on a different legal basis.

7. HOW LONG DO WE STORE YOUR DATA?

Your personal data are only processed for as long as needed to achieve the purposes which are described above or, when we asked for your consent, up until such time when you withdraw your consent. As a general rule, we will de-identify your personal data when they are no longer necessary for the purposes outlined above or when the retention period as explained in this section has expired.

All personal data we collect through our interactions with you via the Scientix website, European Schoolnet social media accounts and e-mails will be kept for as long as required to communicate with you, but also to keep a historical archive of our communications. This allows us to revert back to earlier communications if you return to us with new questions, requests, or other input.

All personal data we collect from the registered users of the Scientix website as well as from the contributors of the various platforms and discussion tools of the Scientix website will be kept for until you contact us to terminate your account(s) and/or request us to delete your personal data you submitted earlier, which will result in the deletion of the personal data that you have provided. Personal data collected from the registered users will, in any case, not be retained longer than five years after the user’s last use of the website.

All personal data we collect to send you the Scientix Digest and Newsletter will be kept for as long as you remain subscribed, up until such time when you withdraw your consent. For our events/webinars/conferences/competitions/courses and surveys/questionnaires, the period of retention will be indicated in the separate privacy policy for the activity concerned.

Beyond these periods, your data won’t be retained except in an anonymized form, or insofar as required for research purposes and publication.

8. WHAT ARE YOUR DATA PROTECTION RIGHTS?

European Schoolnet would like to make sure you are fully aware of all your data protection rights. Every Scientix website user is entitled to the following:

The right to access – You have the right to request European Schoolnet for copies of the personal data we have about you. However, note that you must specify for which processing activities you would like to have access to your personal data.

The right to rectification – You have the right to request that European Schoolnet correct any information you believe is inaccurate. You also have the right to request European Schoolnet to complete the information you believe is incomplete. Please specify the context in which we use your personal data (e.g., to send you newsletters or to register for an event), so that we may assess your request swiftly and accurately.

The right to erasure – You have the right to request that European Schoolnet erase your personal data, if these personal data are no longer needed for the purposes for which we collected them in the first place, if our collection of them was illegitimate or if you have successfully exercised your right to withdraw your consent or your right to object to the processing of your personal data. When one of these circumstances applies, we will immediately delete your personal data unless the law, regulatory obligations or administrative or judicial orders prohibit us from deleting your personal data.

The right to restrict processing – You can ask that we restrict the processing of your personal data:

• during the time we are assessing your request for the correction of your personal data;
• during the time we are assessing your objection to the processing of your personal data;
• when such processing was unlawful, but you prefer restriction to erasure.

The right to object to processing – You have the right to object to European Schoolnet processing of your personal data, when we process your personal data on the basis of our own legitimate interests, i.e., you have not given us your consent and we do not need them for the execution or performance of an agreement nor to comply with legal obligations.

The right to data portability – You have the right to request that European Schoolnet transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.

Whenever we process your personal data based on your consent, you also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, we ask that you send us an e-mail. You can reach us at privacy@eun.org. Your request should clearly state and specify which right you wish to exercise. Your request should also be dated and signed. We will notify you as soon as reasonably possible and at the latest thirty (30) days after having received the request. Please note that whenever you wish to exercise a right, we may ask you to provide proof of identity. We do this to avoid that we have a data breach on our hands, e.g., because an unauthorized person pretends to be you and exercises a right in your name.

9. DATA SECURITY

European Schoolnet has put in place appropriate technical and security measures to protect our infrastructure, systems, applications, premises, and processes where your personal data is stored, from accidental loss, alteration, disclosure, or use or access in an unauthorized way. We process only the personal data required for achieving the purposes we have communicated to you, and we restrict access to your personal data to European Schoolnet designated staff and specified third parties with a business need to know.

We have also put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

10. PRIVACY POLICIES OF OTHER WEBSITES

The Scientix website contains links to other websites. This Privacy Notice applies only to this website, so if you click on a link to another website, you should read their privacy policy.

This Privacy Notice does not apply to European Schoolnet private projects/spaces, including but not limited to the European Schoolnet Academy, Future Classroom Lab, STEM Alliance, and STEM School Label as well as current and past projects carried out by the European Schoolnet whose links are shared on our website and which have their own privacy statements.

The Scientix website also includes links to third-party websites, including Scientix Twitter, Facebook, YouTube accounts, and social media pages, among others. Clicking on those links may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their use of your data. We recommend that you read any privacy notices on their websites carefully. In addition, if you linked to our website from a third-party website, we cannot be responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners and operators of that third-party website and recommend that you check the privacy notice of that third-party website.

11. GOOGLE ANALYTICS

Google Analytics is a web analytics tool that uses cookies to track visitor interactions, helping website owners understand how visitors engage with their website. Google Analytics customers can view a variety of reports about how visitors interact with their website so that they can improve it. Google Analytics collects information without identifying you directly. It reports website trends to its users such as ourselves without identifying individual visitors. Specifically, and depending on whether Google has access to this information, users can get information on the visitors' age group, gender, interests, language preference, location, browser, device, and operating system. You can opt out of Google Analytics without affecting how you visit our website – for more information on opting out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites you use, visit this Google page.

12. COOKIES

To make this website work properly, we sometimes place small data files called cookies on your device. Most big websites do this too.

What are cookies?

A cookie is a small text file that a website saves on your computer or mobile device when you visit the website. It enables the website to remember your actions and preferences (such as login, language, font size, and other display preferences) over a period of time, so you don't have to keep re-entering them whenever you come back to the website or browse from one page to another.

How do we use cookies?

On our website, we only use a very limited number of cookies:

• User preferences: These cookies help to improve a user's experience of a website by providing a more personalized service, without having to ask you every time again; more specifically, our Liferay Portal stores a limited number of user preferences, such as language.

More detailed information about the type of cookies we are using can be found in the following table:

How to control cookies?

You can control and/or delete cookies as you wish – for details, see aboutcookies.org. You can delete all cookies that are already on your computer, and you can set most browsers to prevent them from being placed. If you do this, however, you may have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit a website, and some services and functionalities may not work.

13. CHANGES WITHIN THIS PRIVACY NOTICE

This Privacy Notice may be updated periodically and without prior notice to reflect changes in our personal information practices. Any and all changes to this Privacy Notice will be posted here, and will take effect upon their publication. This Privacy Notice was last updated on 20 October 2023.

14. CONTACTING EUROPEAN SCHOOLNET

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice, the processing of your personal data, if you would like to exercise one of your data protection rights, or if you have any complaint regarding the processing of your personal data by European Schoolnet, you can always contact us:

via email:

Data controller: privacy@eun.org

via post:

Data controller

EUN Partnership AISBL

Rue de Trèves 61

B-1040 Brussels

Belgium

via telephone:

+32 2 790 75 75

15. MAKING AN OFFICIAL COMPLAINT

If you feel that we have infringed your data protection rights, you may make an official complaint to the Belgian Data Protection Authorities at the following address:

Belgian Data Protection Authority

Rue de la Presse 35

B-1000 Bruxelles