Privacy Notice
Version: 2.0
Last updated: 26 June 2026
Introduction
The processing of personal data by the Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA), an international non-profit association with registered address at Jozef II straat 120, 1000 Brussels, Belgium and registered in the Belgian Crossroad Bank of Enterprises under the number 0548.914.288, is governed by this privacy statement.
The processing of personal data described here is governed by Regulation (EU) 2016/679 also known as the GDPR, under which the MCAA acts as the data controller for the personal data processed through the MCAA website and membership platform.
This Privacy Notice explains:
- why we process your data;
- what personal data we collect;
- How we collect your data;
- How long we keep your data;
- International transfers of your data;
- How we protect your data;
- Cookies;
- your rights under the GDPR;
- our contact details.
1. Why do we process your data?
The MCAA processes your personal data only where there is a valid legal basis under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Depending on your interaction with the Association, your personal data may be processed for the following purposes.
1.1. Membership Administration and Mandatory Communications
Legal Basis: Article 6(1)(b) GDPR – Processing necessary for the performance of a contract.
To administer your membership and fulfil the obligations arising from your membership of the MCAA, we process your personal data to:
- create, maintain and manage your member account and profile;
- communicate essential administrative and operational information relating to your membership;
- provide access to member services, voting rights, grants, reimbursements and other benefits;
- allow communication by Chairs of the Chapters and Working Groups that you have voluntarily joined;
These communications are essential for the management of your membership and cannot be disabled while your membership remains active. If you no longer wish to receive these communications, you may resign your membership. If you wish to stop receiving communications from a specific Chapter or Working Group, you may leave that group through your member profile.
1.2. Optional Engagement & Outreach Communications
Legal Basis: Article 6(1)(a) GDPR – Consent.
Where required by applicable data protection law, we will only send optional communications where you have provided your consent. You may withdraw your consent at any time by updating your communication preferences in your member profile or by using the unsubscribe link included in our electronic communications.
Subject to your preferences, these communications may include:
Withdrawal of your consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before its withdrawal.
1.3. Monitoring & evaluation
We conduct programme monitoring and evaluation activities where these are necessary to fulfil contractual obligations associated with the funding and operation of the Association
1.4. Specific Activities (Awards, Grants and Contests)
Legal Basis: Article 6(1)(f) GDPR – Legitimate Interest : To recognize excellence and promote the association’s mission.
From time to time, the MCAA conducts specific high-impact activities, such as the MCAA Annual Awards, micro-grants, events, or internal elections.
Third-Party received Data: In the case of Award Nominations, the MCAA may process personal data of Nominees and Recommenders provided by a third-party Nominator. In such cases, the MCAA will notify the data subjects in accordance with Article 14 of the GDPR.
Specific Notices: These activities may be governed by Activity-Specific Privacy Notices (provided within the call for applications or on the submission form) which provide detailed information on selection committees, ethics reviews, and specific retention periods. In the event of a conflict, the activity-specific notice shall prevail
2. What data do we collect and process?
The MCAA collects and processes only the personal data that are necessary for the purposes described in Section 1 of this Privacy Notice. Depending on the services you use, your participation in MCAA activities and the information you choose to provide, we may process the following categories of personal data.
At registration and throughout your membership, certain information is mandatory to enable us to provide our services, while other information is optional. Mandatory fields are clearly identified at the time of collection.
Identification and Contact Information
- First name and last name
- Email address
- Postal address
- Country of residence
- Telephone number
- Profile photograph
- Username and password
- Links to professional or social media profiles
Personal Information
- Date of birth
- Nationality
- Gender (where voluntarily provided)
- Spoken languages
- Affiliation and funding source
Professional and Academic Information
- Employer or host organisation
- Professional position
- Academic qualifications and degrees
- Research experience and research interests
- Membership of scientific panels
- Information relating to Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions projects (including project title, acronym, project type, host institution, host country and role)
- Any additional professional information voluntarily added to your profile for networking purposes
Financial Information
Where necessary for grants, reimbursements or other financial transactions, we may process:
- Bank account holder details
- Bank name
- IBAN
- BIC/SWIFT
- VAT number
- PayPal account information
- Payment status and transaction reference numbers
Event, Travel and Reimbursement Information
Where you register for an event or submit a reimbursement or grant application, we may process:
- Travel itinerary
- Accommodation details
- Visa information (where required)
- Passport or identity document details (only where legally required)
- Expense claims
- Supporting invoices and receipts
- Proof of payment
- Quotations
- Reimbursement amounts
- Funding information
- Event participation information
Technical Information
When you use the MCAA website, we may automatically collect certain technical information, including:
- IP address
- Login information
- Technical logs relating to the operation and security of the website
Multimedia Content
Where relevant to the purposes described in this Privacy Notice, we may process:
- Photographs
- Videos
- Media and publication materials
Other Information
Depending on the specific activity, application or service, we may also process:
- Information voluntarily provided in free-text fields;
- Supporting documents submitted as part of an application;
- Information necessary to assess eligibility for grants, awards or other MCAA activities.
Additional categories of personal data may be collected where necessary for a specific activity. In such cases, the applicable Activity-Specific Privacy Notice will provide further information regarding the processing of those data.
3. How do we collect data?
The MCAA collects personal data directly from you when you:
- submit an application for membership;
- create or update your MCAA member account and profile;
- register for MCAA events, grants, awards, elections or other activities;
- submit reimbursement requests or other application forms;
- contact the MCAA through the website, email or other communication channels;
- subscribe to newsletters or other communications;
- participate in surveys, consultations or research activities organised by the MCAA; or
- otherwise voluntarily provide personal data to the MCAA.
In certain circumstances, the MCAA may also receive personal data from third parties where this is necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice. Where personal data have not been obtained directly from you, the MCAA will provide you with the information required under Article 14 GDPR within the applicable legal timeframe.
4. How long do we keep your data?
The MCAA retains your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which they were collected and to comply with applicable legal and regulatory obligations.
The applicable retention periods depend on the type of processing activity and include, for example:
Where personal data are no longer required, they will be securely deleted or anonymised unless continued retention is required by law or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.
Members may resign their membership at any time through their member account or by contacting the MCAA using the contact details provided in this Privacy Notice.
Notwithstanding your resignation, the MCAA may retain certain personal data where retention is required to comply with a legal obligation or where necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, in accordance with Article 17(3) GDPR.
Following your resignation, content that you have published on the MCAA website may be retained where necessary to preserve the integrity of the platform. Such content will no longer be associated with your identity and will be displayed as having been submitted by an anonymous user.
Please note that the termination of your MCAA membership eliminates immediately all membership rights and privileges, including eligibility for micro-grants, etc., and should you wish to re-join the MCAA, your length of membership would start again at zero (meaning you would not be eligible for election as an MCAA official until the minimum term of membership is re-acquired).
5. Who has access to your personal data?
Access to personal data is limited to persons who require such access for the performance of their duties and in accordance with the principles of confidentiality and data minimisation.
Depending on the purposes of processing, your personal data may be disclosed to:
- authorised MCAA staff;
- authorised volunteers acting on behalf of the MCAA;
- IT hosting and website maintenance providers;
- providers supporting the administration of grants, events and reimbursements;
- external professional advisers (including legal, audit and accounting advisers);
- competent public authorities where disclosure is required by applicable law.
Where third-party service providers process personal data on behalf of the MCAA, they act as processors under Article 28 GDPR and are contractually required to process personal data only on documented instructions from the MCAA and to implement appropriate technical and organisational security measures.
Personal data may be disclosed to the European Commission where required for the performance of a legal obligation, the implementation of a funding agreement or another lawful purpose described in this Privacy Notice.
6. International transfers
Where personal data are transferred outside the European Economic Area (EEA), the MCAA shall ensure that such transfers are carried out in accordance with Chapter V of the GDPR.
Where required, appropriate safeguards will be implemented, including:
- an adequacy decision adopted by the European Commission;
- the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses; or
- any other transfer mechanism recognised under the GDPR.
Information regarding the applicable safeguards may be obtained by contacting the MCAA using the contact details provided in this Privacy Notice.
7. How do we protect your personal data?
The MCAA implements appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, personal data, in accordance with Article 32 GDPR.
These measures include, where appropriate:
- access controls based on the need-to-know principle;
- authentication and access management measures;
- secure hosting of personal data within the European Economic Area (EEA);
- encryption and secure transmission of data, where appropriate;
- regular backup procedures; and
- measures to ensure the ongoing confidentiality, integrity, availability and resilience of our processing systems.
Where the MCAA uses external service providers to process personal data on its behalf, those providers act as processors under Article 28 GDPR and are contractually required to process personal data only on the documented instructions of the MCAA and to implement appropriate technical and organisational security measures.
8. Cookies
For information regarding our use of cookies and similar technologies, please consult our Cookie Policy.
9. What are your rights and how can you exercise them?
You have the following rights regarding the processing of your personal data, subject to the conditions and limitations set out in the GDPR:
Right of access – You have the right to obtain confirmation as to whether the MCAA processes your personal data and, where that is the case, to obtain access to your personal data together with the information required under Article 15 GDPR.
Right to withdraw your consent – Where processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before its withdrawal.
Right to rectification – You have the right to require us to, without undue delay, rectify or complete any of your personal data that is inaccurate or incomplete.
Right to erasure ("right to be forgotten") – In the circumstances provided for by Article 17 GDPR, you may request the deletion of your personal data. This right does not apply where the MCAA is legally required to retain the data or where processing remains necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.
Right to restriction of processing – In the situations provided for by Article 18 GDPR, you may request that the MCAA temporarily restricts the processing of your personal data.
Right to object – Where processing is based on the MCAA's legitimate interests, you have the right to object at any time, on grounds relating to your particular situation. The MCAA will cease processing unless it demonstrates compelling legitimate grounds which override your interests, rights and freedoms or where processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.
Where personal data are processed for direct marketing purposes, you have the right to object to such processing at any time. Where processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw your consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before its withdrawal.
Right to data portability – Where processing is based on your consent or on the performance of a contract and is carried out by automated means, you have the right to receive the personal data you have provided to the MCAA in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and, where technically feasible, to have those data transmitted to another controller.
You may exercise your rights by contacting the MCAA using the contact details provided in Section “Contact details”. Where appropriate, certain information may also be updated directly through your member profile.
The MCAA may request additional information to verify your identity before responding to your request.
The MCAA will respond to your request without undue delay and, in any event, within one month of receipt of your request, unless an extension is permitted under Article 12(3) GDPR.
If you believe that the MCAA has processed your personal data in breach of the GDPR, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory authority.
Without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial remedy, you may lodge a complaint with the Belgian Data Protection Authority:
Data Protection Authority (APD/GBA)Rue de la Presse 351000 BrusselsBelgium
Email: [email protected]
10. Contact details
If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Notice, the processing of your personal data or the exercise of your rights under the GDPR, you may contact the MCAA using the details below.
Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA)Rue Joseph II 1201000 BrusselsBelgium
Email: [email protected]
You may also submit your request through the "Contact us" section of the MCAA website.
11. Changes to our Privacy Notice
From time to time, we may need to change this Privacy Statement. The MCAA will in such case duly inform you. The most recent version of this Privacy Statement is at all times available on the MCAA website.