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Privacy Policy

Last updated: April 2026

CRAC is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Policy (together with the Vitae Website User Terms and Conditions and any other documents referred to in them or in this Policy) sets out the basis on which we will process personal information about you when you use the Vitae Website.

For the purpose of the The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) , the data controller is the Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) Limited (we, us, our). We are a company registered in England and Wales under company number 00825036, a registered charity number 313164, and have our registered office at 22 Signet Court, Cambridge, CB5 8LA, United Kingdom. CRAC is registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Our registration number is Z1030346. You can check our registered details on the ICO’s website: https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/what-we-do/register-of-data-controllers/

Vitae’s vision is to lead world-class professional and career development of researchers. Vitae is a programme that champions the professional and career development of postgraduate researchers and research staff in higher education institutions and research institutes. Vitae works in partnership with higher education institutions, research organisations, funders, and national organisations to meet society’s need for high-level skills and innovation and producing world-class researchers.

www.vitae.ac.uk

Vitae is managed by CRAC: The Career Development Organisation. CRAC is the independent, UK organisation dedicated to supporting career development and active, career-related learning.

www.crac.org.uk

Access to much of the website’s content is restricted to users whose organisation has purchased an Organisational Membership Subscription.

Information we may collect from you

Information we collect and hold about you may include:

Information that you provide (and, if you are an Organisational Member, that your organisation may provide) to enable you to log on to the Vitae Website (for example your name, organisation, organisation email address) (your User Profile).

Any information that you input into the Vitae Website or which is inputted by another person with your permission, for the purposes of your professional development (your User Data).

Records of any correspondence with you (for example, queries or requests for technical support).

Any other information you provide in the course of using the Vitae Website or interacting with us, for administrative or other purposes.

Details of your membership subscription to the Vitae Website

Details of your visits to the Vitae Website, including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data, whether this is required for our own billing purposes or otherwise and the resources that you access via the Vitae Website.

Uses made of the information

We may use information held about you in the following ways:

To provide the Vitae website and any other Vitae Website related information, products or services that you request from us and we agree to provide (including to answer any query or request for technical support received from you).

For administrative purposes, and to notify you about changes to the Vitae Website and about any other matter concerning your access to the Vitae Website or the information, products or services referred to above.

To ensure that content from the Vitae Website is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.

To provide you with information, products or services which we feel may interest you, where you have consented to be contacted for such purposes, and have not subsequently withdrawn consent by clicking on an “unsubscribe” option in any electronic communication, or by contacting us as outlined in the Your Rights section below.

In order to comply with our legal obligations, enforce or apply the Vitae Website User Terms and Conditions and other agreements, and in order to protect our rights or property and those of third parties.

As otherwise agreed or permitted by you or by the applicable law, and as otherwise set out in this Privacy Policy.

We may also use your User Data, in an anonymised form which does not identify you, for analytical and research purposes (for example to provide reports on use of the Vitae Website to your organisation and third parties). By submitting your personal information you agree that we may use it for those purposes.

When your access to the Vitae Website restricted content comes to an end in accordance with the Vitae Website User Terms and Conditions, we will securely archive your personal information for up to 3 years and then delete your personal information (except any anonymised or statistical information which does not identify you, which we may retain and continue to use for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy).

IP addresses

We may collect information about your computer, including where available your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration and for the purposes set out below. This is statistical data about our users’ browsing actions and patterns, and does not identify any individual.

Cookies

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. Further information about cookies is provided in our Vitae Website Cookies Policy. By using the Vitae website, you agree that we may use cookies in accordance with our Vitae Website Cookies Policy.

Disclosure of your information

We may disclose your personal information to any member of our group, which means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries, as defined in section 1159 of the UK Companies Act 2006.

We may disclose your personal information to third parties in the following circumstances:

If you are an Organisational Member, your organisation will be able to access your User Profile (but not your User Data, except as otherwise set out in this Privacy Policy, or where you otherwise agree or permit, or enable any feature on the Vitae Website allowing your organisation to access your User Data).

If CRAC or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, personal information held by it about the users of the Vitae Website will be one of the transferred assets.

We may disclose your personal information to third parties engaged to perform maintenance and development of the Vitae Website, or to provide other services in relation to it, solely for the purpose of providing those services.

We may also disclose your personal information (including your User Data) in order to comply with our legal obligations; enforce or apply the Vitae Website User Terms and Conditions or other agreements (including by passing details of any non-compliance with the Vitae Website User Terms and Conditions to your organisation, if you are an Organisational Member); to protect our rights or property and those of third parties; and as otherwise agreed or permitted by you or by the applicable law, and as otherwise set out in this Privacy Policy.

Nimbus web hosting services

The Vitae website is an interactive, web-based service hosted on Nimbus web hosting services, a cloud services platform.

You understand and agree that Nimbus will have access to your personal information (including your User Profile and User Data) on the Vitae website for the purposes of providing the web hosting service to us. For more information about how Nimbus may use your personal information for this purpose please see the information about Personal Information in the Nimbus Data Protection Regulation Policy.

Where we store your personal data

If you reside in Europe, your personal information will normally be stored within the European Economic Area, and will not be transferred outside the EEA by us (unless you choose to access your personal information using the Vitae Website outside the EEA). However, you understand and agree that there may be occasions where Amazon may transfer your personal information outside the EEA, as set out in the Amazon Privacy Notice linked to above.

If you reside outside Europe, you understand and agree that your personal information may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the country in which you reside, and that it may also be processed by staff operating outside that country for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy.

We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to the Vitae Website; any transmission is at your own risk.

Links

Where the Vitae Website contains links to other sites and resources, these are provided by us or (if you are an Organisational Member) by your institution, for your information only. We have no control over sites and resources provided by your organisation or other third parties.

If you follow a link to any website outside the Vitae Website (including our Vitae RDF Planner website hosted at rdfplanner.vitae.ac.uk), please note that these websites have their own privacy policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal information to these websites. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the policies of third parties nor for their use of personal data you may submit to their websites.

Your rights

You have the right to ask us not to process your personal information for marketing purposes. You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by checking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your data. You can also exercise the right at any time by contacting us at website@vitae.ac.uk.

The regulations give you the right to:

  • Ask for a copy of your personal information
  • Correct inaccurate personal information held about you
  • Ask for your personal information to be deleted (within 30 days)
  • Restrict processing of your personal information
  • Ask for a copy of your information in a format that allows easy transfer (“data portability”)
  • Object to automated decision making or profiling (if these take place)

Contact us

If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy please contact:
Vitae c/o CRAC Ltd

22 Signet Court
Cambridge
CB5 8LA

website@vitae.ac.uk

Tel: 01223 448500

Changes to our privacy policy

We may revise this Privacy Policy at any time by amending this page. When we make changes we will revise the ‘last updated’ date at the top of this Privacy Policy.

Introduction

We are The Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) Ltd.  CRAC is the non-profit organisation that manages the Vitae programme.  Vitae is the global leader in supporting the professional development of researchers, experienced in working with institutions as they strive for research excellence, innovation and impact.

You can find more information about CRAC and the work that we do on our website: www.crac.org.uk.

CRAC is committed to protecting the personal information of all its contacts and being clear about what information we hold about them and how we use it. This privacy notice tells you what to expect when CRAC collects personal information.

CRAC is registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Our registration number is Z1030346.  You can check our registered details on the ICO’s website: https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/what-we-do/register-of-data-controllers/  

Data controller and Data Protection Officer

CRAC is the “data controller” of any personal information collected within scope of this privacy notice. Our location and contact details are below:

The Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) Limited
22 Signet Court
Cambridge
CB5 8LA
Tel: 01223 448500
Email: data.protection@crac.org.uk

Our Data Protection Officer (DPO) is the first point of contact for people whose information is processed. Contact details for our DPO are as follows:

Data Protection Officer
The Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) Limited
22 Signet Court
Cambridge
CB5 8LA
Email: data.protection@crac.org.uk

Tel: 01223 448500

How we use your information

We can only use your personal information where we have legitimate reasons for doing so and have told you what those reasons are.

The specific uses that will be made of your personal information are listed below:

  • When you complete an online registration form we will collect personal information to manage your conference booking and payment and to administer your attendance at the Conference.
  • We will use your contact information to send you information about the conference and to collect feedback from you after the event.
  • We will share your personal information with the venue to organise catering if you have any dietary requirements or accessibility needs.
  • We will make every effort, where possible to address accessibility requirements shared with us and will not use this information for any other purpose.
  • We will share your information with exhibitors, sponsors and other partners involved with delivering the event (except in circumstances where it is appropriate to gain your consent).
  • We will retain your contact information to inform you about future Vitae conferences and events.
  • Conference booking credit card payment processing is provided by Stripe. Please see the Stripe Privacy Policy for more information.
  • Conference booking  functions are managed on the Vitae website which uses “cookies”, anonymous identifiers and other tracking technologies to provide these services and to present you with customised information. Please see the website Privacy Policy  and Cookie Policy for more information.
  • Conference mailings are processed by Dot Digital  mailing service. You can unsubscribe from these mailings using the unsubscribe link in the email footer. Please see the Dot Digital Trust Center for more information.

If we want to use your personal information for a reason other than those purposes set out above, we will tell you before we start that use and provide further information about the new purpose(s). 

Legal basis for using your personal information

Under data protection legislation, we require a legal basis to be able to process personal information for the purposes set out above. 

In this case, the legal basis is:  

  • Contract
    Data collected during registration is retained by Vitae to process your booking and administer your event attendance. Any information related to conference accessibility or dietary requirement will not be used for any other purpose than what is described in Section 3.
    No information collected through registration will be offered for sale or made available to any third party other than as described in this Privacy Notice. 
  • Legitimate interest
    Your personal data will also be processed because it is necessary for CRAC/Vitae’s legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party. This will always be weighed against your rights, interests and expectations. Examples of where we process data for purposes that fall under legitimate interests include: 
  • Creating participant and speaker lists and distributing lists to participants and speaker (except in circumstances where it is appropriate to gain your consent) 
  • Creating biographies of speakers and publishing and distributing speaker biographies on the event or Vitae website (except in circumstances where it is appropriate to gain your consent) 
  • Sharing your information with exhibitors, sponsors and other partners involved with delivering the event (except in circumstances where it is appropriate to gain your consent) 
  • Filming, photographing or otherwise recording the event and publishing such content on our website, social media accounts and other formats where it would not be necessary, appropriate or practicable to obtain your specific consent (for example, we may seek specific consent for prominent or impactful uses). Please see the event Media Policy below for details 
  • Analysing and improving the use of our website 
  • Using digital tools to monitor the impact of our marketing communications (such as using email tracking to record when an email we send you has been opened) 
  • Analysing who is attending our events 
  • Informing our event delivery and communication activities  
  • Processing feedback to improve the quality of our Events and communication activities 
  • Marketing the Vitae programme and its events by post, telephone, social media and electronic mail (but without prejudice to your rights under the legislation that regulates the sending of marketing communications by electronic means) 
  • Your privacy is paramount 

Vitae recognises that you have a right to privacy that overrides our legitimate interest in showing your engagement with our programme.  You can ask us to delete any image or recording or all images and recordings that we have of you at any time by emailing data.protection@vitae.ac.uk. 

  • Consent 
    We will obtain your consent by asking you to tick that have read and agreed to this
    Withdrawal of consent
    When you register for this event you  will create an account on the Vitae website. You will not be added you to the Vitae Newsletter mailing. If you would like to receive the Vitae newsletter and Vitae updates, you should sign up to the newsletter on the Vitae website. You can unsubscribe from newsletter using the unsubscribe option in email footer. If you no longer want to receive information about similar events or would like to withdraw your consent to any of the processing described in this privacy policy, please contact data.protection@vitae.ac.uk.

Withdrawal of consent for information shared with exhibitors, sponsors and other partners of #VitaeCon2025 

You have right to withdraw your consent to be contacted by exhibitors, sponsors or other partners of #VitaeCon2026 at any time by contacting data.protection@vitae.ac.uk.

What personal information we will collect

The personal information we will collect and use is set out below:

  • Title
  • Name
  • Job Title
  • Telephone
  • Email Address
  • Organisation Postal Address
  • Dietary Requirements
  • Disability or health conditions that we are required to make reasonable adjustments for

Who we give your personal information to

If you are attending the in-person conference we will pass your information to Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh to arrange catering at the event if you have any dietary requirements.

We will share your contact data with Exhibitors and Sponsors and other partners involved in the delivery of the event.

We will not routinely pass your information to any other organisation except where required to do so as part of our functions or by law.

Where your personal information will be stored

Your personal information is stored on Microsoft Office 365 business services.  Microsoft will have access to your personal information for the purposes of providing the business services to us.

For more information about how Microsoft may process your personal information please see the information in the Microsoft Trust Centre:

www.microsoft.com/en-us/trustcenter/privacy.

If you chose to pay by credit card, personal information may be processed by Stripe.  For more information please see the Stripe Privacy Notice:

https://stripe.com/en-gb/privacy

There may be occasions where Microsoft and Stripe transfer your personal information outside the European Economic Area (EEA), as set out in the privacy statements linked to above.

If you register your interest in an event or register to attend an event you will be added to our event mailing list on the Dot Digital mailing platform. Information about how Dot Digital protects your personal information can be found here:

https://dotdigital.com/trust-center/gdpr/

You can unsubscribe from our Newsletter and event mailing lists any time using the links in the footer of the emails.

You should understand and agree that your personal information may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the country and economic area in which you reside, and that it may also be processed by staff operating outside that country for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy.

Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh.

Privacy policy | Dynamic Earth

How we protect your personal information

CRAC has security measures in place to protect your personal information, listed below:

  • All staff are required to undertake training in data protection and information security on joining CRAC and then on an annual basis.
  • Formal information security policies that must be read and understood by all staff.
  • Personal information is only available to those members of staff who require access as part of their role. 
  • We work with third-party data processors that have committed to full General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) compliance: 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/TrustCenter/Privacy/gdpr/default.aspx

https://stripe.com/en-gb/legal/dpa

https://dotdigital.com/trust-center/gdpr/

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:

  • Ask for a copy of your personal information
  • Correct inaccurate personal information held about you
  • Restrict processing of your personal information
  • Ask for a copy of your information in a format that allows easy transfer (“data portability”)
  • Object to automated decision making or profiling (if these take place)
  • Where consent is the legal basis for collecting the information, you have the right to withdraw consent. You can withdraw consent by emailing data.protection@vitae.ac.uk.
  • You can unsubscribe from Vitae mailings by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email or you can email data.protection@crac.org.uk and request your personal data is deleted.  We will retain the minimum data required to ensure that we do not send marketing mail to you again and to record your participation at the event.

If you have any questions, please email data.protection@crac.org.uk.

How long we will hold your personal information

We are only able to retain a copy of your personal information as long as it is still needed for the purpose(s) for which it was collected:

  • We have a legal obligation to retain booking records for seven years.
  • We will retain your contact and profile information on the Vitae website after the event in case you would like to attend future events.
  • We will retain your contact information to inform you about similar events for seven years.

Complaints about the use of your personal information

If a you are unhappy with the way in which your personal information has been handled by CRAC, you may contact us at: data.protection@crac.org.uk or via our Data Protection Officer (details in section 2) and we will try to resolve your issue informally.

If we have are not able to resolve the issue to your satisfaction, you can also make a complaint to the data protection supervisory authority. In the UK, this is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and they 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

Changes to this privacy notice

We keep our privacy notices under regular review and we will inform you of any changes to this notice by placing an update on this privacy notice on the Vitae website.

This privacy notice was last updated on 23/04/2026

Introduction

We are The Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) Ltd.  CRAC is the non-profit organisation that manages the Vitae programme.  Vitae is the global leader in supporting the professional development of researchers, experienced in working with institutions as they strive for research excellence, innovation, and impact.  

You can find more information about CRAC and the work that we do on our website: www.crac.org.uk. 

CRAC is committed to protecting the personal information of all its contacts and being clear about what information we hold about them and how we use it. This privacy notice tells you what to expect when CRAC collects personal information.  

CRAC is registered as a data controller with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Our registration number is Z1030346.  You can check our registered details on the ICO’s website: https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/what-we-do/register-of-data-controllers/ 

Data controller and Data Protection Officer

CRAC is the “data controller” of any personal information collected within scope of this privacy notice. Our location and contact details are below:  

The Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) Limited
22 Signet Court
Cambridge
CB5 8LA
Tel: 01223 448500
Email: data.protection@crac.org.uk 

Our Data Protection Officer (DPO) is the first point of contact for people whose information is processed. Contact details for our DPO are as follows:  

Data Protection Officer
The Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) Limited
22 Signet Court
Cambridge
CB5 8LA
Email: data.protection@crac.org.uk
 Tel: 01223 448500  

How we use your information

We can only use your personal information where we have legitimate reasons for doing so and have told you what those reasons are. 

The specific uses that will be made of your personal information are listed below:  

  • We will be taking photographs and screenshots, audio and film recording throughout the conference. 
  • Photographs and screenshots will be used on Vitae publications to illustrate Vitae activities and promote the Vitae programme. 
  • Photographs and screenshots will be used on Vitae’s website and online communities and channels including the Vitae newsletter  
  • Audio recordings will be used in podcasts and published on the Vitae website and online podcasting platforms 
  • Film footage will be shown on the Vitae website and YouTube and Vimeo channels. 

The details of the person featured in any of the above could include name, Job title or Institution. 

If we want to use your personal information for a reason other than those purposes set out above, we will tell you before we start that use and provide further information about the new purpose(s).  

Legal basis for using your personal information

Under data protection legislation, we require a legal basis to be able to process personal information for the purposes set out above. 

In this case, the legal basis is:  

Legitimate interest 

CRAC has identified that it has a legitimate interest in recording Vitae International Researcher Development Conference activities and the contribution of conference participants for the purposes described above. 

Your privacy is paramount 

Vitae recognises that you have a right to privacy that overrides our legitimate interest in showing your engagement with our programme.  You can ask us to delete any image or recording or all images and recordings that we have of you at any time by emailing data.protection@crac.org.uk.  

What personal information we will collect

The personal information we will collect, and use is set out below:  

  • Photographs and screenshots
  • Audio recordings
  • Film recording 
  • Participant name
  • Job Title 
  • Institution  

Who we give your personal information to 

We will not routinely pass your information to any other organisation except where required to do so as part of our functions or by law.  

Where your personal information will be stored

Your personal information is stored on Microsoft Office 365 business services. Microsoft will have access to your personal information for the purposes of providing the business services to us.  

For more information about how Microsoft may process your personal information please see the information in the Microsoft Trust Centre: 

www.microsoft.com/en-us/trustcenter/privacy.  

There may be occasions where Microsoft transfers your personal information outside the European Economic Area (EEA), as set out in the privacy statements linked to above.  

You should understand and agree that your personal information may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the country and economic area in which you reside, and that it may also be processed by staff operating outside that country for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy.  

How we protect your personal information

CRAC has security measures in place to protect your personal information, listed below:  

  • All staff are required to undertake training in data protection and information security on joining CRAC and then on an annual basis 
  • Formal information security policies that must be read and understood by all staff 
  • Personal information is only available to those members of staff who require access as part of their role. 
  • We work with third-party data processors that are committed to full General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) compliance. 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/TrustCenter/Privacy/gdpr/default.aspx 

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:  

  • Ask for a copy of your personal information 
  • Correct inaccurate personal information held about you 
  • Restrict processing of your personal information 
  • Ask for a copy of your information in a format that allows easy transfer (“data portability”) 
  • Object to automated decision making or profiling (if these take place) 
  • Where consent is the legal basis for collecting the information, you have the right to withdraw consent 
  • You can inform us at any time that you no longer wish us to use your photographic image or voice or film recording to help promote and deliver the Vitae programme by emailing data.protection@crac.org.uk.  

If you have any questions, please email data.protection@crac.org.uk.  

How long we will hold your personal information

We are only able to retain a copy of your personal information as long as it is still needed for the purpose(s) for which it was collected. Your personal information will not be kept for longer than they are needed for the purposes listed above. 

Complaints about the use of your personal information

If you are unhappy with the way in which your personal information has been handled by CRAC, you may contact us at: data.protection@crac.org.uk or via our Data Protection Officer (details in section 2) and we will try to resolve your issue informally. 

If we have are not able to resolve the issue to your satisfaction, you can also make a complaint to the data protection supervisory authority. In the UK, this is the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), and they 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 

Changes to this privacy notice 

We keep our privacy notices under regular review, and we will inform you of any changes to this notice by placing an update on the Vitae website. 

This privacy notice was last updated on 23/04/2026