Terms and conditions of membership, and interacting with the BNA and BNA website

Association policies

All should make themselves aware of the Association's policies. In particular, members are expected to follow the principles of the BNA Equity, Diversity and Inclusion policy, and all members, speakers, delegates, staff, exhibitors and all others interacting with the BNA community are expected to follow the BNA's Safer Spaces policy.

Terms of use of the BNA logo

The website and the logo device are the sole property of the BNA. The BNA logo and associated logos (including but not limited to the BNA Festival of Neuroscience, BNA Events Ltd, Building Bridges Between: Industry and Academia) must not be used without express written permission of the BNA.

Please note that BNA members are welcome to state their membership but must also:

• state what type (Full or Full industry, Early Career, Postgraduate student, Undergraduate student, Career Starter, Associate, Retired or Honorary)
• and can only make use of the BNA logo with express, written permission of the BNA.
• must never refer to the BNA in a way that implies the BNA’s endorsement of a commercial or non-profit-making activity, without first gaining written permission of the BNA.  If a member is found to be doing so, their membership could be terminated by the BNA Council.

Data Protection Notice

Who are we?

The British Neuroscience Association (BNA) is the data controller. This means that the BNA is responsible for how your personal data is processed and for what purposes. You can contact us using the details at www.bna.org.uk/contact-us.

Any reference to ‘We’, ‘Us’ and ‘Our’ is to the BNA or its subsidiary, BNA Events Ltd.  Any reference to ‘You’ and ‘Your’ is to you as an individual user of our websites and applications.

Your personal data – what is it?

Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data. Identification can be by the information alone, or in conjunction with any other information in the data controller’s possession or likely to come into such possession. From 25.05.2018, the processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (the “GDPR”).

What data do we collect, and how?

In order to provide you with access to services or information, we require certain personal details about you. This may include your name, postal address, gender, telephone number, email address, or BNA membership number.

We collect information in the following ways:

• From you via an online form, when you join as a BNA member, update your personal details, send an enquiry via the website, or register for a meeting
• From you, when you take part in a survey or questionnaire
• Logging the Internet Protocol (IP) address of your computer to be able to receive and send information on the Internet.

The BNA may use cookies and other information gathering technologies for the purposes of collecting information and statistics about the users of this site, but such information will not be used to identify any individual. This helps us analyse data about webpage usage and improve our website in order to tailor it to user needs. See our Cookie Policy for more information.

The internet is not a secure medium. However we have put in place a number of security measures, details of which can be provided on request.

Why do we process your personal data?

We collect certain personal information from you in order to provide you with membership services and benefits, to answer your enquiries, to keep you updated on our activities and those of other organisations which we believe will be of interest to you, and to improve your experience of using our websites, attending our meetings, and interacting with the BNA. 

The BNA uses your personal data for the following purposes: -

• To administer membership records;
• To meet our commitment to members to provide member benefits, for example sending you the BNA Bulletin or facilitating membership of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies
• To carry out the administration required to facilitate your attendance at a meeting, for instance sending you information about the event or confirming payment of the registration fee.
• To maintain our own accounts and records (including the processing of gift aid applications);
• To inform you of news, events, and activities run by the BNA, and of activities run by other organisations which we believe to be of interest to you.
• To manage our employees and volunteers;
• To fundraise and promote the interests of the charity;
• To enable us to provide a voluntary service for the benefit of the public.

What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?

Under the GDPR, personal data can only be processed if there is an identified a ‘lawful basis’ for doing so. There are a number of legal bases for the BNA to process your data, depending on the activity in question:

Your explicit consent (Article 6(1)(a))

This is so that we can keep you informed about news, events, activities, opportunities and services of the BNA via e-mail, post, telephone, social media or text; or to inform you about news, events, activities, opportunities and services of other organisations which we believe will be of interest to you. Your consent also enables us to process applications for prizes, bursaries, and funding applications.

In order to meet the requirements of a contract, or carry out steps prior to entering a contract (Article 6(1)(b))

This is relevant for volunteers or employees working for the BNA, where the processing of personal data is necessary for carrying out obligations under employment, social security or social protection law.  It also applies to customers and suppliers of the BNA.

Processing is necessary in order for the BNA to comply with a legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c))

Should you be elected or appointed to a position on the BNA Council, your contact details will be processed to meet requirements of the Charity Commission and of Companies House.

Processing is necessary for our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f))  

This means that we can process your personal data if (i) we have a genuine and legitimate reason; and (ii) are not harming any of your rights and interests.

Our legitimate interests include:

• processing for the purposes of membership administration
• processing for the purposes of meeting our commitment to members to provide member benefits
• processing for the purposes of administering meetings and events
• fundraising and processing gift aid donations

With whom do we share your data?

Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential and will be shared only as set out in this section.

Your personal data may be shared with members of the BNA staff and Committee members in order to meet our commitments to you by way of membership services, answering your enquiries, or giving you access to opportunities in the BNA.

We share your data with third parties for the following reasons:

• the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) so that you can access the benefits of FENS membership.
• the Joint Neurosciences Council, so that you can access the resources of ebrain as part of your BNA membership benefit
• Capability Cloud, so that we can manage and administer your membership, your attendance at BNA meetings, and to answer your enquiries. See here for details of Capability Cloud’s privacy policy.
• SendInBlue, so that we can contact you by email and give you the ability to opt-out of mailing lists. See here for details of SendInBlue's privacy policy.
• for meetings where the BNA appoints a third party to administer the meeting, your details will be shared with Professional Conference Organisers
• postal distributors used by the BNA in order to send you your copies of The Bulletin
• SurveyMonkey, in order to carry out surveys or questionnaires. See here for details of SurveyMonkey's privacy policy.
• Should you be elected or appointed to a Trustee position, we will share your contact details with the Charity Commission and Companies House.
• Should you opt-in to a Local Group on joining the BNA, your details will be shared with the relevant Local Group Representative/s.
• If you serve on any committee or take on any duty, rota or role within the BNA, your personal data may be shared with other members of the BNA. You will be informed if your personal data will be shared more widely.
• We may also share your information or disclose it to third parties where required to comply with any court order or other legal obligation or when data is requested by government or law enforcement authorities, to enforce any agreements, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of us, members of the BNA or others.
• In the event that BNA is sold or integrated with another business your details may be disclosed to our advisers and any prospective purchasers and their advisers, and will be passed on to the new owners of the business.

How long do we keep your personal data?

We keep data in accordance with our data retention policy. This sets out the period of time we keep your data, which depends on the specific purpose it is being kept.  In summary:

• Membership management: Five years following cessation of membership
• Delegate management:  Two years after the event has taken place
• Staff management: Different categories of data are held for different time. BNA staff should ask their line manager to refer to the staff privacy policy.
• Committee member data: Names of Committee members are recorded permanently. Other personal information is kept for six years after the individual has left their post.
• Applicants for prizes, bursaries, funding, positions or other opportunities where a selection process is involved: personal data of candidates is kept for eight years after the selection has taken place.
• Mailing list management: You can choose to opt-out of BNA mailing lists at any time, at which point your data will be deleted.
• Customer and supplier data: If you are a customer (e.g. you advertise in the Bulletin) or supplier of the BNA, details will be kept in our accounts for six years. 

What are your legal rights?

The BNA can share information and news with you in various ways including email, post, phone or social media, but only if you would like us to. Your privacy is very important to us, which is why we make sure you are always in control of what we do with your personal information.

The BNA complies with the obligations under GDPR by:

• keeping your personal data up to date;
• by storing and destroying it securely;
• by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data;
• by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure
• by ensuring that appropriate technical and organisational measures are in place to protect personal data.

Unless subject to an exemption under the GDPR, you have the following rights with respect to your personal data: -

• The right to request a copy of your personal data which we hold about you (‘subject access request’)
• The ability to change any details we hold about you if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date (‘the right to rectification’). You can do this yourself by logging in and editing your membership information; or by contacting the BNA Office staff.
• The right to request your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary for BNA to retain such data (‘the right to be forgotten’)
• If the processing in question is based on consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time
• The right to request that the BNA provides you with your personal data and where possible, to transmit that data directly to another data controller (‘the right to data portability’). 
• The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request that a restriction is placed on further processing;
• Where processing is based on legitimate interests, you have the right to object to the processing of personal data
• If you think there is a problem with the way we are handling your data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the BNA's lead authority, which is Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK. You can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office on 0303 123 1113 or via email https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email or at the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire. SK9 5AF.

Details of any automated decision making (including profiling)

The BNA does not routinely undertake automated decision making.

Further processing

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Data Protection Notice, then we will provide you with a new notice explaining this new use prior to commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions. Where and whenever necessary, we will seek your prior consent to the new processing.

Contact Details

To exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints please contact the BNA office.

Terms of use for the BNA website

The content of this website is the sole property of The British Neuroscience Association (BNA), and all intellectual property rights existing in this site (including but not exclusively any copyright and design right) belong exclusively to the BNA.

The statement of copyright ownership must remain on all reproductions of material downloaded from this site. The website and the logo device are the sole property of the BNA.

Please note that BNA members are welcome to state their membership but must also state what type (Full or Full industry, Early Career, Postgraduate student, Undergraduate student, Career Starter, Associate, Retired or Honorary) and can only make use of the BNA logo with express, written permission of the BNA. The BNA must never be referred to in a way that implies the BNA’s endorsement of a commercial or non-profit-making activity without first gaining written permission of the BNA.  If a member is found to be doing so, their membership could be terminated by the BNA Council.

Any other trademarks, registered or otherwise, remain the property of the appropriate trademark owner.

These Terms of Use shall be construed in accordance with and governed by English law. If any provision of these Terms of Use shall be deemed unenforceable or invalid then that provision shall be deemed severable from the remaining terms and those remaining terms shall be valid and enforceable to the fullest extent permitted by law.

For the avoidance of doubt, nothing in these terms shall confer on any third party any benefit or the right to enforce any term or terms. Nothing in this website shall be deemed to create a binding contract between the BNA and any users of the website.

Any information acquired by BNA through your use of this website will be processed in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 (until 25.05.2018) and with the Global Data Protection Regulation (from 25.05.2018), and any associated Statutory Instruments, Codes of Practice and subsequent Acts of Parliament.  See Data Protection Notice for more details.

Cookie Policy for website

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive.

We use the following cookies:

• Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website, use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing services.

• Analytical/performance cookies. They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.

• Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).

• Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.

You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the table below:

Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.

You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.

Except for essential cookies, all cookies will expire as follows:

• Session cookies: 2 weeks (unless an activity is started and not completed in this time, such as an application)
• Persistent cookies: 6 or 12 months (dependant on the party originating the cookie) but no longer than 12 months

Disclaimer for website

Whilst the BNA has taken every care to ensure that the information on this website is accurate and up to date, no warranties express or implied are given as to the accuracy of the information contained on the website.

No action should be taken or omitted in reliance of any information or advice placed on the website. BNA shall not be liable for any loss or damage arising out of the use of any of the information on this website.

While every effort has been made to ensure that the content of this website is virus free, we would recommend that any downloaded information be virus-checked using reputable virus-checking software. The BNA cannot accept any liability for damage sustained as a result of infection by computer viruses.

Unless otherwise specified, the materials on this website are directed at and are intended solely for use by those accessing the website from the United Kingdom. The BNA makes no representation or warranty that any product, service or information referred to or contained in this website are appropriate for use in other locations or jurisdictions. Those who choose to access this site from other locations or jurisdictions are responsible for compliance with any applicable local laws. These exclusions of liability shall not apply to any actions arising from death or personal injury caused by the negligence of the BNA or any of its employees or agents.

Through this website you are able to link to other websites which are not under the control of the BNA. We have no control over the nature, content and availability of those sites. The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.