LifeArc (“we”, “our”, “us”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy policy sets out how LifeArc collects, uses and shares the information that you provide us through our website located at www.lifearc.org (our “website”) or through our services.

LifeArc is a charity registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales under registration number 1015243 and a charity registered in Scotland with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator under registration number SC037861. LifeArc is also a company limited by guarantee, with company 2698321, incorporated under the laws of England and Wales at 7th Floor, Lynton House 7-12 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9LT. Our website is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.

1. Personal data we process

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about a living individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include information which cannot be used to identify an individual (anonymous data).

We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together follows:

  • Identity Data includes first name, last name, title, date of birth and gender
  • Contact Data includes email address, employer/academic institution and position, invoice address and telephone number
  • Financial Data includes bank account details
  • Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you
  • Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access this website
  • Profile Data includes your website feedback
  • Usage Data includes information about how you use our website and interact with LifeArc
  • Marketing and Communications Data includes your preferences in receiving marketing from us and your communication preferences.

We do not routinely collect any Special Categories of Personal Data. Under the UK GDPR, special category personal data is information revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or similar beliefs, trade union membership, physical or mental health conditions, sexual life, sexual orientation, biometric or genetic data.  However, we may collect such data for specific projects.  If this is the case, we will supply a separate privacy notice.

If you fail to provide personal data

Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you, and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with services). In this case, we may not be able to perform the contract you have with us or otherwise fulfil your request, but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.


2. How your personal data is collected

We use different methods to collect data from and about you, including through:

  • Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity, Contact and Financial Data by filling in forms/grant applications, at in-person events, or by corresponding with us by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you do any of the following:
    • Apply for grants or awards
    • Negotiate and/or enter into a contractual arrangement with us
    • Request information be sent to you
    • Sign up to participate in events
    • Ask for information on licensing opportunities
    • Supply goods or services to us
    • Give us your business card
    • Request that we contact you
    • Apply to work for us
    • Give us feedback.
  • Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. Please see our cookie policy for further details.

3. How we use your personal data

We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

  • Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you
  • Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests
  • Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.

Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data, other than in relation to sending marketing communications to non-corporate subscribers via email. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.


4. Why we use your personal data and lawful bases

We will only use personal data when the law allows us to (i.e. where we have a ‘lawful basis’). Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:

  • Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests. For example, we have a legitimate interest in administering grant applications or arranging events.
  • Where it is necessary for the performance of a contract with you.
  • Where it is necessary to comply with a legal obligation on us (for example, reporting to the UK’s Companies House).
  • Less commonly, we may ask for your consent to use your personal data for a specific purpose.

You may unsubscribe from our email communications via the link in any LifeArc email, request to withdraw your consent, and request for us to remove your personal data at any time by contacting us .

Note that we may process your personal data relying on more than one lawful basis depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal basis we are relying on to process your personal data.

Change of purpose

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you would like an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.

If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.


5. Sharing your personal data

We may share your personal data with External Third Parties including:

  • Our partners, as well as third party services providers, including those who provide data processing services to us (for example, for Website visitors who subscribe to our newsletter, our website spam security service);
  • Any competent law enforcement body, regulator, government agency, court or other third party where we believe disclosure is necessary: (i) as a matter of applicable law or regulation, (ii) to exercise, establish or defend our legal rights, or (iii) to protect your vital interests or those of any other person;
  • Another charity or organization, as part of a merger or other transfer of all or part of our charitable assets;
  • External peer reviewers, professional advisors, co-funders and other research bodies; and
  • Another person, where you have consented to the disclosure.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law.


6. Marketing

We may use your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data to form a view on what we think you may want, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which events, news, information or services may be relevant for you (we call this marketing).

If you allow it, we may show or send you marketing material online or by email. We can only use your personal data to send you marketing messages if we have either your consent or a legitimate interest. You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages by contacting our data privacy manager (see details below).

Third-party marketing

We will not share your personal data with any company outside the LifeArc Group for marketing purposes, unless you specifically request that we do so.


7. International transfers

Some of our External Third Parties are based outside the UK so their processing of your personal data will involve a transfer of data outside the UK.

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK, we ensure that measures are in place to protect it including:

Please  contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism we use when transferring your personal data out of the UK.

We have put in place appropriate technical and organisational security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality. 

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so. 


8. Social media

We may interact with you on one of our social media pages.

Our LinkedIn page can be found at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lifearc/

Visit LinkedIn’s Privacy Policy https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy for more information about how LinkedIn manages personal information, on contact LinkedIn online at: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/ask/ppq or by mail: LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company, Attn: Legal Dept. (Privacy Policy and User Agreement), Wilton Plaza, Wilton Place, Dublin 2, Ireland.

Our Twitter page can be found at: https://twitter.com/lifearc1

Visit Twitter’s Privacy Policy https://twitter.com/en/privacy for more information about how Twitter manages personal information, or contact Twitter online at: https://help.twitter.com/forms/privacy


9. Data security

We  have  put  in  place  appropriate  technical  and  organisational  security  measures to prevent your personal  data  from  being  accidentally  lost,  used  or  accessed  in  an  unauthorised  way,  altered  or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.


10. Data retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

When we have no ongoing need to process personal data, it will either be deleted or anonymised or, if this is not possible (for example, because the relevant personal data has been stored in backup archives), we will store it securely and isolate it.

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your personal data: see Section 8 – Your Legal Rights below for further information.


11. Your legal rights

Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:

  • Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a ‘data subject access request’), to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check it is being lawfully processed
  • Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you;
  • Object to processing of your personal data. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes (see also Section 5 above)
  • Request erasure of your personal data where there is no good reason for us to continue to process it, or where you have exercised the right to object to processing
  • Request the restriction of processing of your personal data, for example if you want LifeArc to suspend processing of certain data to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it
  • Request the transfer of your personal data to another party

If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us.

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO, so please contact us in the first instance.


12. Cookies

For information about the cookies we use, please see our Cookie Policy.


13. Links to other websites

This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements.


14. Contact us

We have appointed a data privacy manager who is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this privacy policy. If you have any questions about this privacy policy, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact the data privacy manager using the details set out below.

Contact Details

Full name of legal entity: LifeArc

Title of data privacy manager: General Counsel & Company Secretary

Email us via this link

Postal address: LifeArc, Lynton House, 7-12 Tavistock Square, London, WC1H 9LT

ICO registration number: Z6907935

Telephone number: +44 (0) 20 7391 2700


15. Changes to this policy

If we decide to make significant changes to our Privacy Policy, we aim to notify you of these changes.  This version of our Privacy Policy was updated in August 2022.