The ELLIS Society, short for European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems, is committed to ensuring transparency in its use of personal information. This notice explains how we collect and use your personal information as part of the selection procedure for the ELLIS PhD and Postdoc Program, which is managed centrally at the University of Tübingen. Data you submit or upload via the ELLIS application portal (apply.ellis.eu) is stored and processed independently of your visits to the general ELLIS website (ellis.eu). The privacy notice of the ELLIS website (ellis.eu) can be found at ellis.eu/privacy-policy. The following information is only valid for the ELLIS application portal that can be accessed at apply.ellis.eu. By using our platform, you consent to the processing and use of your data as described below.
The measures we take are subject to constant updating. We are guided by legal requirements, best practices, technical developments and changes to the functional scope of our program. We therefore recommend that you read our data protection declaration at regular intervals.

Contact

Data protection officer
Data protection officer
University of Tübingen
Geschwister-Scholl-Platz
72074 Tübingen
Email: datenschutz@uni-tuebingen.de
Phone: +49 70 71 29-0

ELLIS PhD & Postdoc Program
European Learning and Intelligent Systems Excellence (ELISE) – Coordinator
University of Tübingen
Maria-von-Linden-Str. 6      
72076 Tübingen
Email: phd@ellis.eu

 

1. Description

1.1. Background

The ELLIS PhD and Postdoc program is a key element of the ELLIS initiative and its goal is to foster and educate the best talent in machine learning and related research areas by pairing outstanding students with leading academic and industrial researchers in Europe. ELLIS PhDs and postdocs are co-supervised by two leading researchers in the ELLIS network. More information about the program and its requirements can be found at ellis.eu/phd-postdoc.

 

1.2. Purpose of the portal and central application

Applicants use our platform to find and be found for PhD opportunities in machine learning and related fields offered by advisors in the ELLIS network. Advisors in the ELLIS network use our platform to indicate to applicants that they are looking for PhD students, and use the platform to find talented students that could be a good match for their labs. The platform is also intended to facilitate and help initiate international or industrial collaborations with co-advisors in the network. 

There is a central call for applications once a year. Successful candidates that (1) are shortlisted after the central ELLIS reviewing process and (2) are offered a PhD position at one of the institutions or by one of the advisors in the network that are participating in the respective call are eligible to become “ELLIS PhD students”.  

 

1.3. Roles

In the context of the selection procedure of the ELLIS PhD program, we distinguish between the following roles:

• Applicants: persons who register to apply to the ELLIS PhD program via apply.ellis.eu
• Referees: Applicants can request reference letters via the platform. Upon the applicant’s request, the referees will receive a unique link by means of which they can submit a reference letter that will be included in the respective applicant’s application file. 
• Advisors: principal investigators or faculty in the ELLIS network (ELLIS fellows, scholars, members) that have signed up to participate in the respective call (i.e. they are looking for candidates to join their research group or projects, or are looking to initiate a collaboration as a co-advisor). Advisors are also tasked with reviewing applications.
• Evaluators: Advisors appoint dedicated evaluators (e.g. postdocs in their lab) to help pre-screen and review applications as part of the central ELLIS reviewing process. 
• Program admins: Coordinating, administrative and technical program staff who manage and support the central selection process of the ELLIS PhD Program.

 

1.4. Data collection, processing and storage duration

According to Art. 4 of the GDPR, personal data is any information that relates to an identified or identifiable natural person. This includes, for example, information such as first and last names, addresses, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and usually also the IP address.

1.4.1. User profile: Applicants

Your personal data and application documents are used exclusively for the purpose of your application to the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS). Access to your personal information and application documents is restricted to staff, faculty and reviewers/evaluators from the program partners. Without your explicit consent or a legal basis, your personal data are not passed on to third parties outside the scope of ELLIS.

Who has access to your data via the portal?
a. Phase I: Registration
After you have registered and accepted our privacy policy, the program admins have access to information and documents you submit and upload to our portal. After the application deadline, all applications are checked for completeness by the ELLIS administration. Complete applications are marked as such and are “released” to the other authorized users in the next phase. Incomplete applications or applications not fully submitted will not be released, i.e. will not be visible to the participating advisors/evaluators.

b. Phase II: Released applications
Applications that are complete and fully submitted before the application deadline are manually “released” by the program staff to the other authorized users: Advisors and their evaluators (see §1.3) have access to the application files of released candidates.
    
c. Phase III: Conclusion selection procedure
All personal information will be deleted from the platform within six months after conclusion of the selection procedure. Application files of students that become part of ELLIS will be processed for the purposes of admission to the program. We may further collect aggregate group data that describes the demographics of our applicants as a group without disclosing personally identifiable information.

1.4.2. User profile: Referees

Your personal data and your provided reference are used exclusively for the purpose of the selection process in the context of the ELLIS PhD Program. Your reference will be combined with the application documents of the corresponding applicant. Access is restricted to the program’s admin staff and ELLIS fellows, scholars and members and their appointed reviewers participating in the program. Without your explicit consent or a legal basis, your data are not passed on to third parties outside the scope of ELLIS. All personal information will be deleted from the platform within six months after conclusion of the selection procedure.

Without your explicit consent or a legal basis, the reference provided by you will not be passed on to the corresponding applicant.

1.4.3. User profile: Advisors and evaluators

Your personal data and your reviews are used exclusively for the purpose of the selection process in the context of the ELLIS PhD Program. The data advisors enter as part of their profile (name, affiliation, country, URL of personal webpage, etc.) are visible to registered applicants, who can list preferred advisors in their application. 

Access to the reviews you submit via the portal is restricted to the program’s admin staff and ELLIS fellows, scholars and members and their appointed evaluators participating in the program (see §1.3).

Without your explicit consent or a legal basis, your data are not passed on to third parties outside the scope of ELLIS. We may further collect aggregate group data that describes the demographics of our advisors and evaluators as a group without disclosing personally identifiable information.

1.4.4. User profile: Admins

Your personal data are used exclusively for the purpose of the selection process in the context of the ELLIS PhD Program. Without your explicit consent or a legal basis, your data are not passed on to third parties outside the scope of ELLIS.

1.4.5. Co-advisors

Your personal data are used exclusively for the purpose of the selection process in the context of the ELLIS PhD Program. Without your explicit consent or a legal basis, your data are not passed on to third parties outside the scope of ELLIS. ELLIS members not belonging to any of the categories listed in §1.4.1-1.4.4. who have expressed an interest in co-supervision via a sign-up form sent out by ELLIS will be included as potential co-advisors on the portal.

1.4.6. Download of application files

For decisions of the persons in charge, a download of the applicant's application file may be desirable. The deletion of application files on the work devices of the persons responsible takes place after the decision has been made. If you do not consent to the download of these data, you can send an email to phd@ellis.eu with the subject line "Reject download of application file" before the application deadline (November 15) in the year of application.

Users of the system including evaluators and persons in charge of decisions such as the participating advisors are obliged to treat all personal data in a strictly confidential manner. In case application files are downloaded or printed as hard copies, the user is obliged to delete these files after the decision-making process. 

 

1.5. Linked websites

Our websites have links to external websites. We have no influence on the contents of these websites and therefore accept no responsibility or liability for the permissibility, accuracy, presentation and completeness of the contents published, displayed or retrievable there.

We hereby inform you that when you access these external websites, your IP address may be logged by the respective website operator.

When you leave our websites, we recommend that you check the data protection declarations of the external website operators before you call up the websites or use the functions there.

 

1.6. Legal basis

To the extent that permission of the affected individual is obtained for the processing of personal data, Article 6 (1a) of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) serves as the legal basis.

 

2. IT infrastructure

The data collected through our online application system is encrypted using secure socket layer technology (SSL). It is stored on servers from a European service provider in accordance with Article 28 of the GDPR. There is password protected access for authorized users. 

Please note that information you send to us by email is not protected in this manner. If you send us your data as part of an inquiry, feedback or message, or fill out online contact forms and send it to us, we will process and use this data exclusively to process your request or to respond to your inquiry.

Most project partners are based in EU countries. To the extent that project partners are based in a third country (e.g. in the UK, Switzerland or Israel), access to the data is limited to the purposes and categories of users described in this notice.

 

3. Rights of individuals affected

As an individual whose personal data are gathered as part of the aforementioned services, you have, in principle, the following rights, to the extent that no legal exceptions are applicable in individual cases:

• Information (Article 15 GDPR)
• Correction (Article 16 GDPR)
• Deletion (Article 17 (1) GDPR)
• Restriction of processing (Article 18 GDPR)
• Data transmission (Article 20 GDPR)
• Revocation of processing (Article 21 GDPR)
• Revocation of consent (Article 7 (3) GDPR)
• Right to complain to the regulator (Article 77 GDPR). The responsible authority is: Der Landesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz und die Informationsfreiheit, Königstrasse 10 a, 70173 Stuttgart, Tel.: 0711/615541-0, Fax: 0711/615541-15, Email: poststelle@lfdi.bwl.de.

Inquiries about the above as well as requests to withdraw your application (applicants), submitted reference letters (referees) or delete your account and profile (advisors/evaluators) can be directed to:

ELLIS PhD & Postdoc Program
European Learning and Intelligent Systems Excellence (ELISE) – Coordinator
University of Tübingen
Maria-von-Linden-Str. 6      
72076 Tübingen
Email: phd@ellis.eu