Privacy Policy

About us

This website was launched by a consortium of partners brought together by global innovation catalyst Global Disability Innovation (GDI) Hub and led by UCL Engineering.

We are committed to providing transparency about any information or data we collect about you as set out below.

For the purposes of data protection, UCL is the controller.

Name and contact details of our organisation

Faculty of Engineering Office, Engineering Front Building, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK

Email us

You can call us on +44 (0)20 3108 4088

The information we collect from you

If you register with InnovationAction.org as a mentor, or submit any other data, we will use the following information that you provide us with:

• Your name, email address, postal address and any other information you voluntarily provide to us via our website and online forms.
• Your IP address (which is a unique identifier that computers and devices use to identify and communicate with each other) which is automatically recognised by the web server.

We may also use cookies on this website. If we do, then for any non-essential cookies we will ask you to opt in to allow us to place them on your device. In this section you will find information on what cookies may be set when you visit the our website and how to manage and disable them.

What are cookies?

A cookie is a piece of text that a website transfers to your computer’s hard disk in order to remember who you are. Cookies interact with your computer and our website faster and easier by remembering the registration details and preferences from previous visits. Typically, a cookie will contain the name of the website from which the cookie has come, the lifetime of the cookie and a value. The use of cookies does not give us access to the rest of your computer and only the site that created the cookie can read it.

Automatically collected access information

Essential technical information: identification of the page or service you are requesting, type of browser and operating system you are using; and the date and time of access.

Nonessential technical information: the Internet address of the web site from which you linked directly to our web site, and the “cookie information” described below.

We may use the following types of cookies

1. Session cookies – these are temporary cookies that remain in the internet browser’s folder of your computer until you close the browser. Our website uses a session cookie which is stored in your browser until you close it to ensure connections to our servers are distributed evenly to provide optimal performance.
2. Persistent/Permanent cookies – these remain in the internet browser’s folder of your computer for longer than the time you are visiting this website and enable certain functionality such as remembering previous visitors and pre-filling forms with your data. This type of cookie does not store any other type of information and is not used for any other purposes.
3. Analytical cookies – Our website uses Google Analytics cookies (third party cookie) for the following purposes:
   • a cookie to record the time of your first visit to website, the time of your most recent visit to the website and the time of your current visit;
   • a cookie to record how long you stayed on the website;
   • a cookie to record how you located our website (i.e. Google search, keyword, link from other page etc).
4. Third party cookies – We sometimes allow partners or service providers to use cookies on our websites. These cookies are used to help us understand how a specific promotion or campaign is performing. The information obtained from these cookies is only used by GDI Hub.

We only share the information obtained through the use of Google Analytics with Google. For more information on Google’s use of your information, please visit the Google Privacy and Data Sharing pages.

The cookies we use for these purposes do not track your Internet usage after leaving our website and we do not store your personal information. They will also not be used in connection with any other information to identify you in any way.

To prevent Google Analytics cookies being set, you may wish to install the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-On

Can I opt out of cookies?

You cannot opt out of essential cookies that enable the site to work or are essential for site security.  We will ask you to opt in to non-essential cookies.  We will not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information about you. You can restrict or block the cookies which are set by our websites, and you can do so by accessing your Internet browser settings. The ’Help’ function within your browser should tell you how.

For general information about cookies and how to disable them, please visit All About Cookies.

Please be aware that restricting cookies may impact on the functionality of our website. For information on how to manage cookies on a mobile phone, games console or internet-enabled television, you should refer to the operations manual specific to each device.  We will give you the opportunity to opt out of any third-party cookies where data about your interaction with our website is collected.

How we use the information about you

We will use the information we hold about you:

• To communicate with you about InnovationAction.org, our activities, technologies and opportunities you may be interested in. When we collect information from you, we will task your permission to use your innformation to contact you in future.
• To deal with your requests and enquiries.
• To contact you for reasons related to your enquiry.
• To use your IP address to monitor traffic and gather browsing behaviours of visitors to our websites. We will not use your IP address to identify you in any way.
• Provide anonymous data and aggregated data to our stakeholders, funders and to other interested parties.
• To create interactive maps on our website, for example, the location of manufacturing facilities in different countries.  If we have collected information from you for mapping purposes, we will display the location of any facilities as being at a random point within a 10km radius of your actual location.
• To connect individuals and organisations with third parties (for example to provide information to a designer about production facilities).  To do this we may pass on your contact details to a third party.
• Your data is stored on secure, UK-based servers.  However, we may sometimes use MailChimp as our email automation platform. Some of the information you provide may be transferred to MailChimp for processing, which may occur outside the UK, in accordance with Mailchimp's Privacy Policy and Terms. There is more information here about how Mailchimp protects any data transferred outside of the EU. 

The lawful basis for how we use your data

The lawful basis for using your personal data is that it is in our legitimate interest to administer, promote and further InnovationAction.org, its work, and the work of its stakeholders and consortium partners, in line with our stated purpose to “source global solutions to global challenges".

Who we share your personal data with

Your personal data will be collected and processed primarily by UCL staff.

• We may share your personal data with the parties such as our communications and marketing partners, for the purposes of sending out communications from us to you, such as emails.
• We may share your personal data with our project partners, such as but not limited to Frontier Technologies Hub, in furtherance of our legitimate interests, for example, to enable them to match individuals to projects so they can serve as mentors.
• We may share your contact details with third parties in order to connect individuals and organisations with those third parties (for example to provide information to a designer about production facilities they have located on our map).
• We may also share your personal information with the police and other law enforcement agencies for the purposes of crime prevention or detection. This is done on a strictly case by case basis and through a tightly controlled process to ensure we comply with current data protection legislation and other relevant legislation.

Protecting your information

The data that we collect from you may be transferred to a destination external to our own secure network.

By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy. The Internet is not generally a secure medium for communication and therefore we cannot guarantee the security of any information you send to us over the Internet. We use up-to-date industry procedures to protect your personal information. We also protect the security of your data using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption technology.

International transfers

We may sometimes use MailChimp as our email automation platform. Some of the information you provide may be transferred to MailChimp for processing, which may occur outside the UK, in accordance with Mailchimp's Privacy Policy and Terms. There is more information here about how Mailchimp protects any data transferred outside of the EU. 

How long we keep your data

We will hold any data you provide us with when you register for as long as you remain registered and until the InnovationAction.org website closes. You can opt out or update your data at any time.

How to de-register, unsubscribe from our email list or update your details

You can unsubscribe from Mailchimp mailings using the link which is included in every email sent via Mailchimp.  If you wish to update any other information you have submitted to us, or have it removed, please contact InnovationAction@ucl.ac.uk

How to contact us

If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy please contact us at InnovationAction@ucl.ac.uk 

Policy last update

This policy was last updated on 13/11/2020

Your rights and what to do if you want to complain

• Under certain circumstances, you may have the following rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data:
• Right to request access to your personal data
• Right to request correction of your personal data
• Right to request erasure of your personal data
• Right to object to processing of your personal data
• Right to request restriction of the processing your personal data
• Right to request the transfer of your personal data
• Right to withdraw consent.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please email our data protection officer or write to: University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT.

The UCL Ethics and Data Protection appoval number associated with this project is Z636410620190108.

You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office about matters relating to data protection