Purpose of the SWINNO database

The purpose of the SWINNO database is to describe the state and historical development of the Swedish innovation system, its output and its impact.

The data is collected as part of the public research, i.e. research with a public interest, done at Lund University.

Which data is collected about which individuals?

The database contains information about the following groups of individuals in connection to innovations: inventors, contact persons for organizations involved in the innovation (mostly the innovating firm and collaborating organizations), financers and commissioners (if they happen to be individuals).

The database can contain the following information about individuals:

1. The name (but not the personal number or other official identifying number)
2. Websites and web pages dedicated to the individual, such as LinkedIn or personal websites
3. E-mail address and telephone number
4. Historical relations to innovations in the database and patents
5. Relations to companies/organizations linked to innovations (We do not collect full CVs but SINNO may contain the fact that an individual was somehow related to a company in connection to an innovation.)

The data mentioned under 1, 4 and 5 is collected exclusively from publicly available journals and magazines, such as Ny Teknik, and Verkstäderna (see below for a full list). The data mentioned under 2 and 3 is collected through web searches.

Who has access to the data about individuals?

Only researchers and project assistants involved in the SWINNO research project have access to data about individuals.

The data will not be published nor transferred to a non-EU country

How long will the data be stored?

The data will be stored at least as long as the SWINNO project last (current financing lasts until the end of 2019 but efforts will be made to prolong the project with 5 years). The data may be stored afterwards as part of archival procedures/obligations. At present it is not clear to the project whether there is an obligation to store the data after the project finishes.

Rights of the individuals whose data is collected

Individuals whose data is collected have – to the best of the project’s knowledge – the following rights:

1. The right to the information provided in this text
2. The right to confirmation as to whether or not the SWINNO database contains information about him or her (please see below for more information)
3. The right to see/receive a copy of the collected information and on any available information about the sources from which the data is collected.
4. The right to request rectification or erasure of the personal data.
5. The right to file a complaint with a supervisory authority

Contact

Please contact Frank van der Most ( frank [dot] van_der_most [at] ekh [dot] lu [dot] se (frank[dot]van_der_most[at]ekh[dot]lu[dot]se) ) with questions about the SWINNO database or your personal data in it.

One can also contact the Lund University’s data protection officer via dataskyddsombud [at] lu [dot] se (dataskyddsombud[at]lu[dot]se)

Please note

At present (August 2018) it is not entirely clear to the SWINNO project how privacy issues related to the GDPR will be dealt with by Lund University, so all information here is preliminary. As soon as we know more, we will update this document.

Is your personal data collected in the SWINNO database?

It is likely that SWINNO contains personal data about you if your name is mentioned in relation to an innovation in an article in one of the magazines listed below. This often means that you have been interviewed or otherwise mentioned in the writing of the article.

If your name is not mentioned in one of these journals then it is highly unlikely (say 99%) that your data is collected in the SWINNO database. In case of around 50 innovations we used additional internet sources to find contact persons for a survey.