Terms and Conditions

1. Application domain

1.1 These Terms and Conditions are applicable to all contributors of content to, and all users of any instance (production, test, use case, and development) of the platform DataHub.
1.2 These Terms and Conditions describe the conditions under which ELIXIR Belgium (the provider) allows the public to use the DataHub platform.
1.3 These Terms and Conditions are subject to change. The provider reserves the right to apply changes to these Terms and Conditions at any time and without notice, other than through posting the updated Terms and Conditions on the DataHub platform.
1.4 Your continued use of the DataHub platform after the posting of such new Terms and Conditions means that you agree to the changes. If you do not agree to the changes, you should discontinue use of the DataHub platform.
1.5 If there is a conflict between these Terms and Conditions and the updated and/or additional Terms and Conditions, the updated and/or additional Terms and Conditions will prevail.

If you have any questions about our Terms and Conditions, please contact us by email at datahub@elixir-belgium.org.

2. DataHub platform

2.1 The DataHub platform is run by ELIXIR Belgium, referred to as the “providers”, “us”, “our” and “we”.
2.2 The user (also referred to as “you” or “they”) is any individual, single physical person that uses or accesses the DataHub platform directly or by using application programming interface ("API").
2.3 The user cannot register to DataHub as a business or organisation.
2.4 DataHub is a platform for upload, registration, deposition, publication, and sharing of scientific contributions and data (here generally referred to as “content”), and offers the possibility of sharing some of the said content with the public.
2.5 Content means, but is not limited to: project description and metadata, experimental protocols, analysis workflows, raw and processed data in any format, specimens metadata, datasets, data files, any scientific contributions, publications, other research outcomes, events and links to external web pages and resources.
2.6 Users must register to access the restricted area of DataHub. After completing the registration, users can login to the restricted area of the DataHub. The user is responsible for keeping the login data secret. The password is unknown to the providers of DataHub.
2.7 The users must explicitly declare to have read and agreed to these Terms and Conditions and to the Privacy Policy of the DataHub platform and any of the other instances before being allowed to register. You may not use the DataHub platform if you do not accept these terms. You can accept these terms by clicking to accept or agree to these terms where we have provided you with a clickable electronic assent option.
2.8 Our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference into these Terms and Conditions, explains how we treat your personal data and your privacy when you use any instance of the DataHub platform. By using our DataHub platform, you agree that ELIXIR Belgium can use your data in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

3. Content

3.1 The user is exclusively responsible for the content deposited on DataHub. There is no influence by the provider on the content deposited on DataHub by the user. DataHub shall not be liable for any content or information uploaded and registered by the users.
3.2 The user is responsible for ensuring that the deposited content:
 - does not violate rights of other users and people in general
 - does not violate any applicable local, state, national, or international law.
 - is not insulting, pornographic, racist, agitating, and does not violate rules of decency and/or
 - is not inclined to violate the reputation of the provider.
3.3 The user is also responsible for ensuring that the deposition of content and links:
 - does not contain any virus or malware and/or
 - does not seek to modify the outside view on DataHub (e.g. defacement).
3.4 If violations of any of the conditions listed above are detected, the provider can remove the content completely or partly.
3.5 Datahub shall not be liable for damage that a virus/malware contained in users’ content might cause to other users’ content and account or other sites linked to DataHub.

4. Rights of use and licence of registered content

4.1 By uploading content, the user grants the provider of the DataHub platform the non-exclusive right, unlimited in time, space and content, to make his/her content accessible to other users or the public via the aforementioned platform. This is subject to the sharing permission settings and the licence selected by the user (see the User Guide for information on sharing permissions and licences).
4.2 By creating programmes and projects, the user grants the provider of the DataHub platform the non-exclusive right, unlimited in time and space, to make his/her programme and project’s title and description (and further optional metadata, if provided by the user) accessible to the public via the aforementioned platform.
4.3 Users registering content on the DataHub are assumed to be either its owners or have sought and obtained permission from the owners.
4.4 Users take full responsibility for the accuracy of the content they deposit and for the decision to publish information related to the content. The DataHub management cannot be held responsible for misuse of content by users.
4.5 The user determines whether the deposited content is open to other users or the public, and can be accessed via a range of devices.
4.6 A user can give managing/editing rights to other users over his/her content in DataHub.
4.7 The user can determine the licence under which his/her content is shared.
4.8 If the user had previously made content publicly available through the DataHub platform, there is no way to stop the public from continuing to use that content, given the public nature of the internet. You may grant further rights if you apply a licence to your content.
4.9 The user retains intellectual property rights to his/her content and retains the unlimited right to publish that content to other own/third-party sites or in other publication formats (e.g. books, journal articles, databases, web-based platforms).
4.10 The user agrees that the provider can continue to use the above-mentioned right of use without restriction if the portal is migrated to another website operated by ELIXIR Belgium. The same applies in case the provider should give up the name DataHub or replace it with another name.

5. Ascertaining rights and guarantees

5.1 The provider shall not be liable for any content and information uploaded and registered by the users in DataHub, nor for any damage that they might cause to a third-party.
5.2 The user is responsible for awareness of third-party rights before publication of any content on the DataHub platform and to properly reference copyrighted work.
5.3 The user bears the risks in relation to his/her content, including risks arising through use of the data. The provider does not warrant that the content does not violate the rights of third parties.
5.4 The user must be entitled to all rights granted based on these Terms and Conditions without any restrictions and free of any rights of third parties. The user also guarantees that he/she has not made any disposition of any kind over the rights, which would conflict with the granting of rights to the provider of the DataHub platform according to these Terms and Conditions.
5.5 The provider does not warrant that the content is not in conflict with personal and other rights of third parties (e.g. Patents, Trademarks, Registered Designs, other design related property rights, rights to their own image, name rights, etc.).
5.6 The user releases the provider from any claims against the provider by third parties with regard to the content registered in the DataHub platform by the user. In the case of a third party ascertaining rights regarding content of a user, the user will keep the provider free of liability.
5.7 If declarations or documents of the user are necessary or suitable for a defence of the provider rights, the user is obliged to submit them on request or to make them available to the provider as well as to provide all information required in this context.
5.8 In general, personal data cannot be uploaded onto an open repository such as DataHub, unless the data subject has given consent to it. The provider shall not be liable for any content or information containing personal identifiable data that might have been uploaded or registered by the user. The responsibility for the compliance to the General Data Protection Regulation, (EU) 2016/679 lies on the user.

6. Reliability and liability

6.1 The DataHub provider, at its sole discretion, however, reserves the right at any time and from time to time to modify, suspend, discontinue, or terminate the platform or portions thereof with or without notice. The user agrees that we will not be liable to you or to any third party for any modification, suspension, discontinuation, or termination of the platform.
6.2 The provider does not take liability if access to DataHub is limited or availability is reduced and results in the user no longer being able to access the DataHub infrastructure and thus no longer being able to use its services.
6.3 The provider will not be held liable for any changes, updates or temporary or permanent discontinuation to the operation of the platform.
6.4 There is no liability on the provider in case of malfunction/disruption of the service. The same applies for interruptions because of maintenance. DataHub is provided 24 hours on 7 days per week. Necessary interruptions of the service for reasons of maintenance will be announced beforehand, if possible. The provider will strive to remove the interruptions/malfunctions of the service as quickly as possible within the provider‘s capacities.
6.5 The user is responsible to have a separate copy of all of his/her content and data stored in DataHub. You are advised not to use the DataHub platform as the exclusive storage for your data and content. DataHub recommends that you separately store all data and content registered to DataHub on other secure servers or with reputable third-party hosting services.
6.6 The user is responsible for any data losses occurring due to sharing edit rights with other users. If the user grants other users rights to edit the content and data due to the rights settings, the provider is not responsible for the execution of edits and/or related data loss. In this respect, the provider is not liable.
6.7 The provider does not take responsibility for unauthorized data breaches performed by third parties, leading or not to a loss of data.
6.8 The provider does not take responsibility for unauthorized data breaches and data leaks performed by third parties.
6.9 DataHub platform may contain links to other sites. Content registered as public in DataHub could be available for harvesting by other databases. The DataHub provider is not responsible for the Privacy Policy of third party sites and database servers.

7. Blocking access to DataHub

The provider is entitled to deny the user access to the DataHub platform in case of violation of these Terms and Conditions and/or of any applicable law.

8. DataHub platform copyright

Copyright reserved. Copies of these pages, either in full or in part, are subject to prior written permission from the DataHub provider. All rights not explicitly granted herein are reserved.

9. Privacy and GDPR

The use of personal data that are collected at registration to the DataHub and/or during use of DataHub is governed by our privacy policy.
Please read our Privacy Policy.

10. Jurisdiction of the organization

The Belgian ELIXIR node is coordinated by the VIB Data Core, located in Zwijnaarde, Ghent, Belgium. Any legal disputes will be heard by an appropriate Belgian court.

11. Contact

If you have questions or comments concerning these Terms and Conditions, you may email us at datahub@elixir-belgium.org. Support is provided in English only.

12. Technical Infrastructure

Server Management

DataHub instances are managed via OpenStack and hosted by VSC at Ghent University's data center. We are running one production instance and several test- and demo instances. This ensures that all changes in the source code can be tested and evaluated before being applied to our production environment.

Data Storage

All data is persisted in a MySQL database on the same infrastructure as the application, with a daily backup cycle in case of disaster. All backups are transferred to VIB's long-term object storage, which is hosted on different infrastructure. Backups are not intended to be used as rollback-mechanisms for mistakes made by users, but as a means to recover most data if needed.

Security
The data center hosting the DataHub instances is located on Ghent University's premises, which restricts physical access to a limited number of staff members with appropriate training. Our servers are remotely accessible by the same group of people, and additionally also by the technical members of the DataHub team.

These Terms and Conditions were last updated on February 26th, 2024.