Research Data Policy

Principles

Research data belong to the people who generated them. We handle them so that they stay confidential, unaltered and reproducible, following the spirit of the FAIR principles for well-managed data.

Before sharing files

• Use the website form for a summary only.
• After scoping, we agree a sharing channel for your project (for example a shared folder you control, with access limited to the named lead).
• Remove direct identifiers from any human-participant data. We do not accept identifiable patient records.
• Confirm that you have the right to share the data with us under your institution’s, funder’s and ethics committee’s conditions.

How we handle data

• Original files are never modified; work is done on copies.
• Every cleaning or transformation step is scripted or logged.
• Analysis code, software versions and parameters are recorded and handed over.
• Files are processed on the owners’ own computers or your accounts — not uploaded to public AI services without written consent.
• Access is limited to the named lead and any named specialist you have agreed to.

Retention and deletion

At the end of an engagement we return or delete project data as agreed in the scope. Unless you ask otherwise, working copies are deleted 3 years after completion, keeping only what we must for accounting or legal reasons.

Unpublished research

We do not publish, present or reuse any of your unpublished results, and nothing from your project appears in our public assets, case studies or social media without your written permission.