What we hold, and what we deliberately do not

Your name, email address, telephone number and date of birth; the centre and country where you currently work or study; when you started and finished university, your latest degree and when you received it; which GROW centre you want to visit and for how long; your expectations and what attracts you to that centre; whether you are an IFFS or IFFS Next Generation member; whether you need a visa and which costs you can fund yourself; and, if you choose to tell us, why you should be considered and any help you need from the IFFS team.

Two documents: proof of your current study or work status, and a one-page letter from the head of department at your institution approving your visit. The approval letter names you and is signed by your head of department, so it also contains their name and position. Tell them it will be sent to IFFS GROW.

The documents are stored with your application in the same database, and can only be opened by the programme office through its private admin area. Every time one is opened or downloaded, it is logged against the person who did it. They are not published and not sent to a centre before your application is approved, and they are deleted with your application.

We do not ask for passport or identity documents, immunisation records, indemnity certificates or right-to-work documentation. Your host centre verifies those under its own governance before a placement begins, as it must for anyone entering a clinical or laboratory area.

The centre's name, city and country; the person in charge of the GROW project there; a local contact person with their email address, telephone number and job role; what the centre can provide to a fellow; the techniques it performs; its strong points; the recognition it holds; its available dates; and how many fellows it can host.

Once a centre is approved, its name, city, country, what it provides, the techniques it performs, its strong points, its recognition and its remaining places are published in the centre directory and on the map. The names and contact details of the person in charge and the local contact, and the centre's available dates, are not.

To assess your application, to match you with the centre you asked for where it has places, and to report to the IFFS GROW Board on the programme in aggregate.

If your application is approved, the information you gave us is shared with the host centre so that it can review the placement. Nothing is shared with a centre before you are approved.

When you submit a form you are emailed a confirmation containing a copy of your answers, so give an address that only you read. The IFFS GROW programme office receives the same copy.

Each of those emails is recorded — who it went to, its subject and content, and whether it was delivered — so the programme office can resend one that did not arrive. Emails are delivered through Resend, an email delivery service, on our behalf.

Submissions are stored in a database hosted in London, United Kingdom, and the site itself is hosted by Vercel. Only named staff of the IFFS GROW programme office, signing in to a private admin area, can read them. Every export and every deletion made there is logged against the person who made it.

To stop automated spam, each submission is stored with a one-way, keyed fingerprint of the internet address it came from. The address itself is not stored and cannot be worked out from the fingerprint.

While you fill in a form, your answers are kept in your own browser so that an accidental reload does not lose them. They stay on your device, are cleared when you submit, and are gone when you close the tab.

The status page asks for your reference and the email address you applied with, and shows only where your application stands and which documents arrived — never your answers. Repeated failed attempts from one connection or against one reference are blocked for a while, to stop anyone guessing.

The map on the centres page is provided by Mapbox. When it loads, your browser fetches map tiles directly from Mapbox, which receives your internet address and browser details as any site you visit does. The map does not ask for or use your location. The phone number field may preselect your country's calling code from the country your connection appears to come from; that guess is not stored. The country list beside it gives the same information without the map.

You will be asked for feedback on the centre you visited: how the placement was organised, the information and supervision you were given, what you learned, and whether you would recommend the centre. That form tells you your answers are confidential and are not shared with the centre unless you ask us to share them.

Your host centre is also asked to evaluate your placement. It sends IFFS GROW your name, the dates you attended, your attendance and total hours, how you engaged with the activities, how receptive you were to teaching, your conduct towards its staff, an overall rating, and whether it would host you again.

GROW is an international programme. If you are matched with a centre in another country, your application is shared with that centre, which may be outside your own country's data protection regime. Applying is how you ask us to do this. The services named above that deliver email, host the site and serve the map may process data outside the United Kingdom.

The programme office can delete a submission permanently on request, together with the emails recorded for it.

Earlier applications were collected through Google Forms owned by the IFFS secretariat. They are covered by this notice and held under the same retention rules.