Who we are and how to contact us

This Gateway Portal, including all functionality on the Gateway Portal such as Cohort Discovery (the “site“) is operated by Health Data Research UK (“HDR UK”). HDR UK is a limited company registered in England and Wales under company number 10887014 and a charity registered with the Charity Commission under charity number 1194431 with its registered office is at 215 Euston Road, London, England, NW1 2BE.

To contact us, please use our support page: https://healthdatagateway.org/en/support

Acceptance of Terms and Conditions

Access to and use of this site or any of our APIs is provided by HDR UK subject to the following:

• By using this site, you confirm that you accept these terms and conditions (including any Additional Terms that may apply as below) (together, the “Terms and Conditions“) and that you agree to comply with them. The Terms and Conditions take effect on the date of your first use of the site.
• If you do not agree to the Terms and Conditions, you must not use our site.

Other Terms and Conditions that apply to you

Additional terms and conditions may apply when you use certain functions made available on the site, including the terms of use for Cohort Discovery (the “Additional Terms“).

The following additional documents also apply to your use of our site as an individual user:

• Privacy Policy, which sets out how we will use your personal data.
• Cookie Policy, which sets out information about the cookies on our site.

Changes to Terms and Conditions

• HDR UK reserves the right to amend the Terms and Conditions from time to time. When you use this site, please check the Terms and Conditions.  These terms were most recently updated in July 2024.
• By continuing to use the site after amendments are made you confirm that you accept the amendments and that you agree to comply with them.

Your account and password

• You will need to register an account with us on the site in order to access certain functionality available on the site, including but not limited to the ability to enquire about datasets, submit Data Access Requests, onboard metadata, access Cohort Discovery, or create an API key (“Account“). In order to register for an Account, you must be aged 18 or over. If you register an Account, you will be asked to select a sign in provider from a list of approved single sign on providers. Once you’ve selected a sign in provider, you will be redirected to your sign in provider’s authentication system. Upon successful authentication, HDR UK will be provided with a secure token and your email address which is used to create your Account.
• We have the right to disable any Accounts, at any time, if in our reasonable opinion you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of the Terms and Conditions, including any Additional Terms.
• If you know or suspect that anyone other than you knows your Account login details, you must immediately notify us at dataprotection@hdruk.ac.uk and gateway@hdruk.ac.uk.
• You are responsible for any unauthorised use of your Account login details.

Disclaimer

• Views and opinions of non-HDR UK groups or individuals that appear on this site do not necessarily reflect the views of HDR UK.
• HDR UK does not endorse or recommend any datasets, commercial products, processes or services linked from, referred to, or provided on this site.
• This site and the information, names, images, pictures, logos and icons contained therein are provided “AS IS” and on an “AS AVAILABLE” basis without any representation or endorsement made and without warranty of any kind (including any implied warranties), and HDR UK may update and change the site from time to time. We may suspend, withdraw, discontinue or change all or any part of the site without notice. We will not be liable to you if for any reason the site or any part of it is unavailable at any time or for any period.
• To the maximum extent permitted by law, HDR UK (including any of its member/partner organisations) shall not be liable to you for:
  • any loss or damage, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, even if foreseeable, arising under or in connection with use of, or inability to use our site or use of or reliance on any content displayed on our site; and
  • any indirect or consequential loss or damage, loss of profits, sales, business or revenue, loss of anticipated savings, loss or business opportunity, goodwill or reputation or business interruption.
• HDR UK does not guarantee that access to this site will be uninterrupted or error-free, nor does HDR UK guarantee that this site or the server that makes it available are free of viruses, bugs or defects.

Requesting data sets via the site

• If you request access to or enquire about a dataset referenced on our site, your request will be automatically forwarded to the relevant data custodian that maintains the dataset (“data custodian”). HDR UK will not be party to any contract for the subsequent sharing of the dataset, which in each case is a contract solely between you and the applicable data custodian (a “data sharing agreement”). HDR UK does not have any rights or obligations under any data sharing agreement.
• HDR UK and its members/partners do not make any recommendations or endorsements regarding the datasets referred to on the site and are not responsible for their availability, reliability or accuracy.
• You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on the site. This shall include conducting your own due diligence on any dataset that you may request to use via the site.
• To the maximum extent permitted by law, HDR UK (including any of its member/partner organisations) shall not be liable to you for any loss or damage, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, even if foreseeable, arising under or in connection with any use of any dataset referred to on our site, including, without limitation, any loss of profits, sales, business or revenue, loss of anticipated savings, loss of business opportunity, goodwill or reputation or business interruption. You agree that you shall not pursue any claims for loss or damage arising from use of a dataset against HDR UK.

Depositing metadata onto the site

By depositing metadata or materials (including but not limited to tools, software, code, publications or data uses) onto the site, you warrant that you have any necessary consent, permission and/or authorisation necessary to do so and you warrant that you shall remove any such metadata and/or materials from the site and will comply with all applicable laws, regulations and policies in doing so. In the event that you no longer have the necessary consent, permission or authorisation, you will remove any relevant metadata and/or materials previously deposited onto the site. HDR UK shall not be liable in any circumstances for your failure to comply with these requirements.

You agree that it is your responsibility to ensure the accuracy and completeness of any such metadata and/or materials.

When depositing metadata and/or materials onto the site, your organisation will be provided with a user group structure (a “Team”) allowing the configuration of user permissions and access into roles (“Role(s)”). You are responsible for ensuring that users are assigned to the most appropriate Role in accordance with your organisation’s policies and procedures and for keeping all Roles up to date and accurate. You are responsible for all acts and omissions by your users on the Site. In no circumstance shall HDR UK be liable for any acts or omissions of any of your users.

You agree that you will remove users upon any of the following occurring: they are no longer employed by your organisation, they no longer require or have authorisation to access your organisation’s metadata on the site or are being investigated for misconduct.

APIs

HDR UK provides facilities for API key generation providing access to the Gateway secure APIs. You agree that by generating any API key, you will:

• Keep your key(s) private and not share with any third party.
• Use your key(s) in compliance with these Terms and Conditions and any Additional Terms.

External links

• Links from this site may be provided to other external sites. HDR UK does not endorse the content or services delivered through these external sites and are not responsible for their availability, reliability or accuracy. HDR UK has no control over the content of these external sites. Permission to reproduce information from these external sites may be required from the external site provider.
• The use of our APIs or the existence of a link from any organisation’s site to HDR UK’s site does not imply that HDR UK endorses the activities or views of that organisation.

Copyright (and other intellectual property rights) restrictions

• HDR UK is the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in this site, and in the material published on it.
• You may print off one copy and may download extracts of any page(s) of our site, search results and metadata hosted within the site for your use in accordance with these Terms and Conditions, including the Additional Terms and Conditions, and you may draw the attention of others within your organisation to content posted on our site.
• You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text.
• Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of content on our site must always be acknowledged.
• You must not use any part of the content on our site for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors.
• If you print off, copy or download any part of our site in breach of the Terms and Conditions, your right to use our site will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made.

Acknowledgment

You agree to acknowledge HDR UK and the site in any publications, presentations or publicity related to your use of the site. You agree to follow HDR UK’s Attribution Policy for any such acknowledgements.

Restrictions on your use of the site

• You agree to use this site only for lawful purposes, and in a manner which does not infringe the rights of, or restrict, or inhibit the use and enjoyment of this site by any third party. Such restriction includes, without limitation, conduct which is unlawful or which may harass or cause distress or inconvenience to any person and the transmission of offensive material or disruption of normal flow of dialogue within this site.
• You must not misuse our site by knowingly introducing any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, logic bombs, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or other harmful programs or material that is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our site, the server on which our site is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our site. You must not attack our site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of-service attack. By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our site will cease immediately.

Accuracy of information

• Neither HDR UK nor its members will be liable for any losses or damage that may result from use of the site as a consequence of any inaccuracies in, or any omissions from, the information, which it may contain or which may be accessed through the site.
• We have made reasonable efforts to ensure that the information on this site is accurate at the time of inclusion. However, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the information on this site is free from technical inaccuracies or typographical errors or that the content is accurate, complete or up to date. We are not liable for any error or omission in, or any failure to update, the information on this site and any decisions based on the information are your sole responsibility.

Suspension and termination

If you breach any of the Terms and Conditions, we may immediately do any or all of the following (without limitation): issue a warning to you, temporarily or permanently withdraw your right to use the site; suspend or terminate your Account, issue legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs resulting from the breach (including, but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs), take further legal action against you, and/or disclose such information to law enforcement authorities as we reasonably feel is necessary to do so.

Other important terms

• If any of the Terms and Conditions should be determined to be illegal, invalid or otherwise unenforceable by reason of the laws of any state or country in which the Terms and Conditions are intended to be effective, then to the extent to which that Term and Condition is illegal, invalid and unenforceable within the jurisdiction, it shall be severed and deleted from the Terms and Conditions and the remaining Terms and Conditions shall survive, remain in full force and continue to be binding and enforceable.
• The Terms and Conditions, their subject matter and their formation (and any non-contractual disputes or claims) are governed by English law. We both agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England.

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