Requests to disclose data and applying for a research permission at Tampere University
Request for a disclosure of data for research purposes
Tampere University discloses its data for research purposes based on a request and a decision based on the request. Please note that this concerns data contained in Tampere University’s registers and confidential documents. A decision to disclose data based on a disclosure request is required in the following cases:
- to study the University’s confidential documents
- data from the University’s data files or registers containing personal data for research purposes.
The above applies to all members of the University community, both staff and students.
Research permission
Research permission is required from persons outside Tampere University in the following situations:
- when using the working time of Tampere University’s employees to collect research materials, for example, interviews, observations or filling in questionnaires during working hours,
- when observing or interviewing university students or asking them to fill in questionnaires in teaching or other situations,
- when the research is carried out with the University’s equipment or in enclosed spaces, if, for example, the agreement between the research partners or the project documents do not indicate how good scientific practices are to be observed (data management, data protection, ethical principles, as appropriate, on a case-by-case basis)
- when research data is collected using the University’s mailing lists and any other channels,
- when another specific reason is related to granting the research permission (for example, it is requested by the funder).
Granting a research permission and the decision to disclose data upon a data request for research purposes
The Vice President for Research grants the research permission if the study involves the entire staff or students of the University. If the study deals with a faculty, the Dean of the faculty grants the permission. The Dean of one faculty also grants the research permission when the study deals with 2–6 faculties (see Contact details below for further information).
If your study deals with, e.g., Tays Central Hospital as an organisation or its patients, the permission is granted by the hospital. In this case you can contact Tays Central Hospital’s research and teaching coordinators. If your research deals with TAMK, you can contact Senior Adviser Liisa Marttila (liisa.marttila [at] tuni.fi).
Please note that Tampere University can only grant a research permission for carrying out the research. The decision to participate in the research is everyone’s personal affair.
The University’s staff and students do not need a research permission. When the University’s staff or students want to study members of the University community, they can make their own informal arrangements with the relevant body. It is worth noting that even though the University's own students and staff are no longer required to obtain a research permission, a data protection notice must still be drawn up for the processing of personal data and an assessment must be made of the risks to the research subjects caused by the processing of their personal data. For more information on risk assessment, see the section on application and attachments below.
The decision to disclose data upon a data disclosure request for research purposes is subject to the same principles as the granting of a research permission. As data requests generally concern register research, the subjects are not required to give their consent to participate in the research. However, they must be informed about it.
Application and attachments
These guidelines apply to both permissions.
The decision to disclose data for research purposes is made based on the disclosure request. The request is done by filling in the A form. A research permission is applied for with the research permission form (B form), please see Links and forms below.
Attach the research outline to both the research permission and data disclosure application with the objectives of the study, research methods and the data management plan clearly defined (please find links to guidelines in Links and forms below).
If your study involves processing personal data, please include the prior evaluation document or the Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) and data protection notice (please see Links and forms). The prior evaluation document and the data protection notice are required as attachments to both the research permission application and the data disclosure request.
Evaluate the risks related to processing personal data with the guideline on evaluating the need for a prior consultation relating to data processing impact assessment (please see Links and forms below).
If the evaluation shows that the high-risk criteria related to processing of personal data are fulfilled and a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) is required, contact the Data Protection Officer (dpo [at] tuni.fi) when you are preparing the assessment using the prior consultation template. If the high-risk criteria are not fulfilled according to the guideline and thus a DPIA is not required, the above mentioned filled in prior consultation template corresponds to the limited risk assessment mentioned in the GDPR and a separate impact assessment is not needed. If you need help filling in the risk assessment template, please contact the University’s data management services (researchdata [at] tuni.fi).
The researcher must undertake to comply with the provisions of data protection legislation regarding the processing and protection of data, and any records of individual personal data generated by the research must be destroyed or archived as required by law.
The decision to disclose data following a request for data disclosure and the research permission may be revoked if the terms of the permission decision are breached. In such cases, the permission holder must return the data and material obtained for the purposes of research.
If an external operator would need both a research permission and a decision to disclose data based on a data disclosure request for the purposes of research, he or she would only lodge a data disclosure request. In the data disclosure form (form A) information on what other research material is collected at Tampere University is included (e.g., interviews and surveys for students or staff).
In addition to the research permission and the decision to disclose data, the research setting may also require an ethical review by the Ethics Committee of Tampere Region. See cases where an ethical review is required.
Contact details
Research permission applications and data disclosure requests that concern the entire staff and students, and University-level registers and documents are processed by Senior Specialist Heikki Eilo (heikki.eilo [at] tuni.fi). The research permission is granted by vice president for research Tapio Visakorpi by a presentation of senior specialist Heikki Eilo.
If the research concerns single or several faculties as regards the personnel, students, confidential documents or registers, the research permission, and the decision to disclose data is granted by the Dean or the person to whom he or she has delegated that task. Further information on research permissions in the faculties are given by their Research Specialists:
- Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences: Research Specialist Maija Belliard, maija.belliard [at] tuni.fi.
- Faculty of Management and Business: Research Specialist Hanna Salminen, hanna.salminen [at] tuni.fi.
- Faculty of Education and Culture, Research Specialist Anneli Lehtisalo, anneli.lehtisalo [at] tuni.fi
- Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Research Specialist Mariaana Savia, mariaana.savia [at] tuni.fi.
- Faculty of Built Environment, Research Specialist Anne Tuhkunen, anne.tuhkunen [at] tuni.fi
- Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Research Specialist Heli Lehtivuori, heli.lehtivuori [at] tuni.fi
- Faculty of Social Sciences, Research Specialist Maija Ojala-Fulwood, maija.ojala-fulwood [at] tuni.fi
Forms and links
Further information on ethical review in human sciences