RSP - RDM

Data Protection

Coventry University Group is committed to processing personal/sensitive personal data in accordance with:

• Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (GDPR) sets out a legal framework for processing personal data.

You must comply with the DPA 2018 and/or GDPR principles as appropriate, if your research data includes:

• Personal data, special categories of data (sensitive data), and data relating to criminal convictions and offences,
• Sharing personal and/or sensitive personal data with an external third party e.g. collaborative research, using an external IT system to process the data,
• Transferring personal and/or sensitive personal data outside of the European Economic Area (EEA),

GDPR places greater emphasis on organisations to comply with Data Protection legislation where organisation is acting as a Data Controller, who determine the purpose for which and the manner in which personal data are collected and processed (e.g. Coventry University is a Data Controller if your research is in connection with the University). The new Data protection regime also provides enhanced and new rights for individual such as Right to Data Portability, not all rights will apply where personal data is processed for the research project.

Please contact the University’s Information Governance Unit (IGU) who regulates governance and compliance over data protection and privacy matters. Please ensure you initiate the contact with IGU as early as possible in your project if you require advice or assistance on any data protection points or query.  

Information Governance Unit - enquiry.igu@coventry.ac.uk 

Guidance on information security incidents and digital compliance is available on the Digital Services:Information Security page (internal page).

To report a data breach incident - Please report the incident via the Data Breach Form and notify IGU via databreach.igu@coventry.ac.uk.

Useful Websites

Information Commissioner's Office

The DCC - Five Things You Need to Know About RDM and the Law: DCC Checklist on Legal Aspects of RDM

JISC Research Data Management Toolkit - Data protection regulation