Privacy Policy

When we need to handle personal information about you, this is how we look after that information.

Privacy Notice

We are committed to protecting your personal data and respecting your privacy. This statement outlines how we collect, use, and protect your information in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).

Data Controller: Women in Neuroscience UK

General Enquiries: womeninneuroscience.uk@gmail.com

Data Protection and Privacy Enquiries: hr.womeninneuroscience.uk@gmail.com

Type of Information Collected:

We collect and process personal and non-personal data through various channels, including:

Google forms (e.g., event registrations, feedback, surveys, role applications, award nominations)
Newsletter and mailing list sign-ups
Social Media platforms (e.g., Meta, X, TikTok, Linkedin, Youtube, Bluesky)
Website analytics and impact evaluations
Event recordings and live streams

This encompasses any information you provide on our forms or website, as well as any data you share with us in other ways.

Information You Provide:

This includes:

Name, Preferred name, email address, country, gender, social media accounts and other contact details
Comments, feedback, and responses to surveys or forms
Accessibility needs or reasonable adjustments
Demographic data (e.g., age, ethnicity, location, religion, sexual orientation, health information) where voluntarily provided
Nomination details (e.g., nominee and nominator names, contact details, reasons for nomination)

Information We Collect Automatically:

We may collect:

Website usage data (e.g., page views, visit duration, navigation paths)
Email engagement metrics (e.g., open rates, click-throughs)
Social media analytics (e.g., likes, shares, comments, average demographic insights such as country, age, gender)
Audio, video and chat data from recorded or streamed events

Further Details on Information We Collect:

We only collect special category data (e.g., health, ethnicity, beliefs) where necessary and with your explicit consent. This includes protected characteristics (as defined by the Equality Act and s.75 of the Northern Ireland Act), access needs or reasonable adjustments, primarily for equal opportunities monitoring and accessibility support.

Where demographic information is collected for volunteer recruitment or equal opportunities monitoring purposes, providing this information is entirely optional. Demographic information is not used to assess applications or make selection decisions, and may be analysed in anonymised and aggregated form to support equality, diversity and inclusion monitoring, reporting and organisational
improvement.

Events may be recorded, streamed, or photographed for accessibility, educational, promotional and community engagement purposes. By attending an event, participants acknowledge that recordings, photographs, audio or chat content may be captured and shared through our website, social media channels, newsletters or other communication platforms.

We collect personal data through nomination forms for our annual awards; if you are submitting personal information (e.g., names, contact details), you must ensure you have their permission and that they are aware of how their data will be used. Nominees will be contacted and provided with access to this privacy policy.

Purpose of Data Collection:

The non-personal and personal information stated above that we collect is used for the following purposes:

To provide and operate our services
To process Women in Neuroscience UK volunteer role applications and assessing suitability for the roles
To handle event registrations
To manage newsletter subscriptions and communications
To manage membership and mailing list sign-ups
To offer ongoing community assistance and technical support
To conduct impact evaluations aimed at improving our services and outreach, including the use of aggregated personal statistical data and other aggregated and/or inferred non-personal information to enhance our services and share it with external bodies e.g., stakeholders
To contact our website visitors and users with general services and promotional messages.
To comply with any applicable laws and regulations.
To assess suitability for volunteer roles
To communicate with applicants regarding volunteer recruitment
To provide reasonable adjustments and accessibility support during recruitment and volunteering activities
To monitor the inclusivity and accessibility of our recruitment processes through optional demographic information
To analyse anonymised and aggregated demographic information for equality, diversity, and inclusion monitoring and organisational improvement
To record and stream events for accessibility and outreach purposes.
To manage award nominations and contact nominees.

Legal Basis for Processing:

We process your data under a range of lawful bases depending on the purpose of processing, including:

Consent, where you have chosen to provide information such as subscribing to our newsletter, or optional demographic information
Legitimate interests, including administering our services, assessing volunteer applications, improving our activities and evaluating organisational impact
Compliance with legal obligations where required by applicable law

Where we process special category data, such as information relating to health, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or other protected characteristics, we will only do so where an appropriate condition applies under data protection legislation.

Data Retention, Usage, Sharing and Disclosure:

We retain personal data for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including legal, administrative, reporting and organisational requirements. In most cases, personal data will not be retained for more than five years after the relevant activity or engagement has concluded, unless a longer retention period is required or justified. Individuals may request the deletion of their personal data, and such requests will be considered in accordance with applicable data protection laws and our legal obligations.

Our organisation’s website is hosted on the Wix.com platform, which enables us to provide our services to you. Your data, if registered for our mailing list or as a website member, is stored through Wix.com’s data storage, databases and the general Wix.com applications. This data is stored by Wix.com on secure servers behind a firewall.

We also use Google forms to collect responses for various purposes, such as event registrations, feedback, volunteer applications, and surveys. The data collected through Google Forms is securely stored in a Google Drive which is private to WiNUK volunteers and managed via Google Sheets. Google ensures this data is stored on secure servers and is protected by their robust security measures. We handle this data in compliance with UK GDPR, ensuring it is not kept longer than necessary and is protected against unauthorised access.

We also use Meta services, X, TikTok, LinkedIn, Youtube and BlueSky for our social media channels, where we collect analytical data, as well as general feedback, comments, and interactions. This enables us to provide our services to you. Your data may be stored through their data storage, databases and general applications, on secure servers, behind a firewall. Your data will not be shared with third parties without your explicit consent, except where required by law. We may share your anonymised data for statistical purposes, including but not limited to our
impact evaluation, and with our sponsors/partners.

Communication with Users:

We may contact our website users to notify you regarding your account, to troubleshoot problems with your account, to poll your opinions through surveys or questionnaires, to send updates about our organisation, or as otherwise necessary to enforce our User Agreement, applicable national laws, and any agreement we may have with you. For these purposes, we may contact you via email, or social media.

Automated Decision-Making:

Women in Neuroscience UK does not use automated decision-making or profiling when assessing applications, nominations, registrations or other submissions. Decisions relating to volunteer recruitment and participation are made by individuals and are not based on automated processing.

Your Rights:

You have the right to access, rectify, or erase your personal data, as well as the right to restrict or object to its processing, and to data portability. Our mailing list emails include directions on how to unsubscribe at the bottom, to be removed from our mailing list at any time. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection regulator.

If you make a data protection rights request, we must respond to you without undue delay and in any event within one month. To make a request and exercise your rights, please contact us using the contact details at hr.womeninneuroscience.uk@gmail.com.

Security Measures:

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction.

Your Choices and Rights:

Where we rely on consent as our lawful basis, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before consent was withdrawn. Where we rely on other lawful bases, such as legitimate interests, you may still exercise the rights available to you under UK GDPR.

Changes to This Statement:

We may update this Data Protection Statement from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated revision date. Changes and clarifications will take immediate effect upon update.

If you would like to: access, correct, amend or delete any personal information we have about you, or
exercise any of your rights under UK GDPR, please contact:

Data Protection & Privacy Enquiries:
Email: hr.womeninneuroscience.uk@gmail.com

For general enquiries about Women in Neuroscience UK, please contact:
Email: womeninneuroscience.uk@gmail.com

Last Updated:

05/10/2026

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