Terms and Conditions

Please read these terms and conditions carefully.  It governs our relationship with you in relation to this website and any submissions of ideas, innovations or any other information that you make to us via this website. 

We may change these terms and conditions at any time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to review these terms and conditions to ensure you are happy with any changes.  Using or accessing this website indicates your acceptance of these terms and conditions.  If you do not accept these terms and conditions, please do not continue to use this website.

Information about us

NHS Innovations North is the NHS Innovation Hub for North East of England. It a service delivered by RTC North Ltd. (registered in England No. 2373630, VAT registration No. 532 6119 66) on behalf of the NHS. The registered address for NHS Innovations North is 1 Hylton Park, Wessington Way, Sunderland, SR5 3HD.
NHS Innovations North is part of the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement.  The registered address is Coventry House, University of Warwick Campus, Coventry CV4 7AL.

The website to which these terms and conditions apply and for which we are responsible is www.nhsinnovationsnorth.org.uk.

Your use of this website and our intellectual property rights

We have made this website available to you for your own personal use.  We may modify, withdraw or deny access to this website at any time. 

This website and all the materials contained in it are protected by intellectual property rights, including copyright, and either belong to us or are licensed to us to use.  Materials include, but are not limited to, the design, layout, look, appearance, graphics and documents on the website, as well as other content such as articles and guides, and tools such as the Bright Ideas Tracker online application system.

If you wish to copy, redistribute, republish or otherwise make the materials on this website available to anyone else for a commercial purpose, you will need our consent in writing. 

Your innovation assessment and your intellectual property rights

You may share your ideas or innovations or any other information with us so that we may, at our sole discretion, consider such ideas and innovation and assess them for you.  Subject to the confidentiality provisions set out below, we may disclose your ideas and innovations to third parties who may carry out the assessment/evaluation on our behalf or may assist us with such assessment/evaluation.  All intellectual property rights in such ideas and innovations submitted to us shall remain unchanged through the use of the Bright Ideas Tracker online application system.

If you ask NHS Innovations North to assess your ideas/innovation, we aim to respond you in thirty (30) working days, in which time period you grant us a period of exclusivity by agreeing that no third party shall carry out an assessment/evaluation of the same ideas/innovation for you. 

Our liability to you

These terms and conditions do not exclude our liability (if any) to you for:

• personal injury or death resulting from our negligence;


• fraud;


• any matter which it would be illegal for us to exclude or to attempt to exclude our liability.

Other than our liability as set out above, we will not be liable to you whatsoever (whether in contractt, tort - including negligence). In particular we cannot accept responsibility for loss, loss of profits, loss of business, depletion of goodwill and like loss.

We do not guarantee that this website will be compatible with all or any hardware and software which you may use.  We do not guarantee that this website will be available all the time or at any specific time.  We reserve the right to withdraw or modify this website at any time.

The assessment feedback provided to you reflects the opinion of NHS Innovations North only. You are free to take further advice or seek further guidance before taking any action based on the assessment feedback. We do not make any promise that any ideas or innovations submitted to us will be capable of commercialisation.

Confidentiality

We agree not to make or publish any statement relating to, nor to disclose (in whole or in part) to any person, firm, company or organisation any information that you have submitted to us and identified as being of a confidential nature (“Confidential Information”) which we have obtained or received from you, or as set out below.

We may disclose Confidential Information to:

• other NHS bodies;


• other organisations involved in the assessment of your submissions;


• their respective employees, agents and sub-contractors;

all of whom have a need to know the same for such purpose.  Before so disclosing the Confidential Information we shall ensure that they have signed up to a confidentiality agreement in order to protect the Confidential Information by making such bodies/organisations bound by a duty of confidence.

We may use the Confidential Information in connection with assessing your idea but not otherwise or for the benefit of any third party.

The confidentiality provisions will not apply to the whole or any part of the Confidential Information which is:

• lawfully obtained after the disclosure of the Confidential Information free of any duty of confidentiality otherwise than directly or indirectly from you;


• already in our possession before being received by us from you;


• which we can demonstrate is in the public domain other than as a result of a breach of these confidentiality provisions;


• necessarily disclosed pursuant to a statutory or regulatory obligation; or


• disclosed with your prior written consent.

What information do we collect?

In general, you can use this website without giving us any information.  However, in order to register and use the Bright Ideas Tracker online application system, we require certain information from you.  By registering, you explicitly agree for NHS Innovations North to use the information you provide to assist and improve its business processes, including:

• internal record keeping;


• to improve our services;


• to follow up in relation to providing an assessment


• the carrying out of peer reviews in relation to other projects.

How to get copies of or amend the information we have collected

You may request details of personal information which we hold about you under the Data Protection Act 1998.  A fee will be payable.  If you would like a copy of the information in realtion to you, please write to the Registered Office address given above, for the attention of the ‘Director of NHS Innovations North’.
If you think any information we have about you is incorrect or incomplete, please write or e-mail us as soon as possible.  We will correct or update any information as soon as possible.

Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure.  In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect on line. 

Contracting online

Nothing on this website is intended to be nor should be construed as an offer to enter into a contractual relationship with you or anyone else, except for these terms and conditions which govern the relationship between us in relation to your use of the website.

If you make a contract with a third party who is named or referred to on this website, it is your responsibility to ensure that you are comfortable with the terms of that contract and to take legal advice if necessary.

Governing Law and Jurisdiction

The formation, existence, construction, performance, validity and all aspects whatsoever of these terms and conditions or of any term of these terms and conditions will be governed by the law of England and Wales.

The English and Welsh courts will have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any disputes which may arise out of or in connection with these terms and conditions or use of the website.