Career Tracker data privacy notice

Last updated: 27 April 2026

1. Introduction

The Medical Research Foundation is conducting a career tracker study that follows the progress of the awardees of our Fellowships, Prizes and Grants.

For the purpose of this evaluation, the Medical Research Foundation is the data controller in respect of the personal data collected within the scope of this privacy notice.

Information about the approach can be found on our page on reporting progress, outcomes and impact from your grant.

You can also access our general privacy policy.

The Medical Research Foundation Research Team is responsible for this evaluation.

JISC Online Surveys is acting as data processor (as defined in data protection legislation).

2. Uses of your information

This is a survey study to gather insights into post-award completion career pathways of Fellows and research grant awardees and to determine the impact that that these schemes have had on the awardees’ careers, research, and contributions to medical research.

Findings from the survey will be summarised in a report that the Medical Research Foundation will write. JISC Online Surveys will provide the Medical Research Foundation with a data set based on responses to the survey. The Medical Research Foundation will store personal data for the purposes of the ongoing career tracker project, where individuals have specifically given their consent to do so.

3. Legal basis for using your personal information

Under data protection legislation, a legal basis is required to be able to process your personal information for the purposes set out above. The collection and use of your personal information will be based on you providing your explicit consent.

Withdrawal of consent: Consent must be a clear positive action that you have given your agreement to the use of your personal information, and consent can also be withdrawn at any point if you are no longer happy with the use of your personal information for a specific reason. If you to wish to withdraw consent, please do so in writing to the Research Team at contact@medicalresearchfoundation.org.uk

Once consent is withdrawn, we will destroy all relevant personal information unless we are relying on a different legal basis to justify keeping your personal information. If that is the case, we will tell you in writing. However, withdrawing your consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before you withdrew it.

4. What personal information we will collect

Personal information that we may collect during the research could include the following:

• Full name
• Email address
• Career history and current role
• Organisation and institutional affiliation
• Research outputs and impact
• Funding history
• Equality and diversity data (e.g. gender, ethnicity, age if provided voluntarily).

In addition to information provided through this survey, we may collect and use limited professional information about researchers we have previously funded from publicly available sources, such as university or employer websites, professional biographies, or platforms like LinkedIn. This may include information about career progression, roles held, and organisational affiliations.

We do this to help us understand the longer‑term career development of researchers we have supported, including where individuals choose not to complete the survey. We process this information on the basis of our legitimate interests in evaluating the outcomes and impact of our funding and improving our support for researchers.

We only collect information that is relevant and necessary for these purposes. Where possible, the data will be pseudonymised and used in aggregated or anonymised analysis. We do not use publicly available information for marketing purposes. Individuals have the right to object to this processing, and further details about how to exercise data protection rights are set out below.

5. Storage and sharing of personal information

Information supplied through the project surveys will be collected through JISC Online Surveys platform. During data collection, the data are stored in an encrypted state. You can learn more about the privacy policy of JISC Online Surveys.

The information you submit will be compiled by the Medical Research Foundation, but only anonymised data derived from the surveys may be included in our research report. You will not be identifiable from any such outputs. We will not pass your information to any other organisation except where required to do so by law.

6. Your rights over your personal information

Once your personal information has been collected, you have certain rights in relation to that personal information that may be exercised. You have the right to:

• Request access to your personal information (and receive a copy of it)
• Request correction of any inaccurate personal information held about you
• Request for your personal information to be deleted
• Withdraw your consent for us to use your personal information

All these rights have certain limitations depending on the request and the purpose for which we are holding your personal information. To exercise any of these rights, in the first instance please contact the Medical Research Foundation at contact@medicalresearchfoundation.org.uk

7. How we protect your personal information

JISC Online Surveys has a range of security measures to protect your personal information:

• Secure data hosting in the UK, compliant with UK GDPR
• Encryption of data during transmission and at rest
• Access controls to ensure only authorised users can view or manage data
• Regular security audits and vulnerability assessments
• Compliance with ISO/IEC 27001 standards for information security management

These measures are designed to ensure that your personal data is handled securely and in accordance with data protection legislation.

8. How long we will hold your personal information

JISC Online Surveys are only able to retain your personal information for as long as it is needed for the purpose(s) for which it was collected. Personal information will only be retained by the Medical Research Foundation if you have provided explicit permission for it to be used in the Career Tracker project. As this is a longitudinal study, data will be stored permanently to enable long-term comparisons and analysis.

Equality and diversity data will be retained only in an anonymised form.

9. Complaints about the use of your personal information

If you are unhappy with the way in which your personal information has been handled, please contact us via contact@medicalresearchfoundation.org.uk and we will try to resolve your issue. If we are not able to resolve the issue to your satisfaction, you can make a complaint to the data protection supervisory authority. In the UK, this is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) which can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113; Email: casework@ico.org.uk

10. Changes to this privacy notice

We keep our privacy notices under regular review, and we will inform you of any changes to this notice in writing. Last updated: 27 April 2026.