Ethical, legal and commercial issues

Regulatory and legal requirements and issues of rights, ethics and privacy should be considered when you are planning research, and dealt with in the data management plan. The potential to develop the intellectual assets resulting from research activities should also be considered.

Questions to ask

Have you gained consent for data preservation and sharing?
How will sensitive data be handled to ensure it is stored and transferred securely?
How will you protect the identity of participants? e.g. via anonymisation or using managed access procedures
Are there any knowledge transfer or commercial opportunities

Ethical guidelines issued by funders and the university cover how you can create and store data.

Advice on legal issues such as data security, Data Protection and Freedom of Information can be obtained from Information Govenance or from the links below. Legal and KT Contracts can provide advice on research contracts, collaboration agreements, licencing agreements, confidentility agreements etc

The Technology Transfer Office can provide advice on developing and exploiting intellectual assets, and intellecual property.