Rialtas na hÉireann | Government of Ireland
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Terms of use

If you are under 18 years of age, please ask you parent or guardian to read these terms and conditions before you take part in any interactive service found on this website.

1. Terms of website use

There is so much to see and do on our website, and we want to make sure every visit is an enjoyable one. We have written the following terms of use to help us all maintain a safe and enjoyable on-line experience. Please read these terms of use carefully before you start to use our site. Younger visitors to our site should ask a parent or guardian to explain some of the more complicated terms. By using our site, you are indicating that you accept these terms of use and that you agree to abide by them. If you do not agree to these terms of use, please do not continue to use our site.

2. Information about you and your visits to our site

We work hard to protect your privacy and you should too. If you are posting a message or replying to anyone else’s within a blog never give out any personal details (i.e., your real name, address and/or telephone number) or any account details even if asked for them. Never arrange to meet someone you encounter online. Visit the Department of Education & Skills / National Centre for Technology in Education website for more information on staying safe on the internet. See SFI’s privacy policy for more information.

3. Accessing our site

Access to our site is permitted on an “as is” basis, and we reserve the right to withdraw or amend the service we provide on our site without any prior notice to you. We will not be liable if for any reason one (1) or more of our site are unavailable at any time or for any period of time.

If you are between the ages of twelve (12) and seventeen (17) we may also require the prior consent of a parent or guardian before you can register with us. If you are under twelve (12) years you MUST have prior permission from a parent or guardian before you can register with us. In both cases you will learn more about permissions during the registration process. See privacy policy for more details.

From time to time, we may restrict access to some parts or all of our site, to users who have registered with us.

If you choose, or you are provided with, a user identification code, password, or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat this information as confidential, and you must not disclose it to anyone else. We have the right to disable any user identification code or password, whether chosen by you or allocated by us, at any time, if in our opinion you have failed to comply with any part of these terms of use.

When using our site, you must comply with the provisions of our acceptable use policy, as below.

You are responsible for making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to our site. You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our site through your Internet connection are aware of these terms, and that they comply with them.

4. Acceptable use policy

Prohibited uses

You may use our site only for lawful purposes. You may not use our site:

  • in any way that breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation;
  • in any way that is unlawful or fraudulent, or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect;
  • for the purpose of harming or attempting to harm minors in any way;
  • to send, knowingly receive, upload, download, use or re-use any material which does not comply with our content standards;
  • to transmit, or procure the sending of, any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (spam);
  • to knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware; or
  • to attack our site or other sites through our site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack.

You also agree:

  • not to reproduce, duplicate, copy or re-sell any part of our site in contravention of the provisions of these terms of use; and
  • not to access without authority, interfere with, damage or disrupt:
  • any part of our site;
  • any equipment or network on which one or more of our sites are stored;
  • any software used in the provision of our site; or
  • any equipment or network or software owned or used by any third party.

Interactive services

We may provide interactive services on our site, including, without limitation:

  • Event Calendar;
  • Idea Form;
  • Discussion boards or forums

Where we do provide any interactive services, we will provide clear information to you about the kind of service offered, if it is moderated and what form of moderation is used (including whether it is human or technical).

We will do our best to assess any possible risks to our users (in particular children) from third parties when they use any interactive service provided on our site, and we will decide in each case whether it is appropriate to use moderation of the relevant service (including what kind of moderation to use) in the light of those risks. However, we are under no obligation to oversee, monitor or moderate any interactive service we provide on our site, and we expressly exclude our liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of any interactive service by a user in contravention of our content standards, whether the service is moderated or not.

The use of any of our interactive services by a child may be (and where the child is under twelve (12) will be) subject to the consent of their parent or guardian (see details above) We advise parents who permit their children to use an interactive service that it is important that they communicate with their children about their safety online and to make them aware of potential risks, as moderation is not fool proof. Visit the Department of Education & Skills / National Centre for Technology in Education website for more information on staying safe on the internet.

Where we do moderate an interactive service, we will normally provide you with a means of contacting the moderator. Should a concern or difficulty arise please contact creatingourfuture@sfi.ie

Content standards

These content standards apply to any and all material that you contribute to our site (the “contributions”), and to any interactive services associated with it. You must comply with the spirit of the following standards as well as the letter. The standards apply to each part of any contribution as well as to its whole.

Contributions must:

  • be accurate (where they state facts);
  • be genuinely held (where they state opinions); and
  • comply with applicable law in Ireland and in any country from which they are posted (if this is not Ireland).

Contributions must not:

  • contain any material which is defamatory of any person;
  • contain any material which is obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory;
  • promote sexually explicit material;
  • promote violence;
  • promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age;
  • infringe any copyright, database right or trade mark of any other person;
  • be likely to deceive any person;
  • be made in breach of any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence;
  • promote any illegal activity;
  • be threatening, abuse or invade another’s privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety;
  • be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person;
  • be used to impersonate any person, or to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person;
  • give the impression that they emanate from us, if this is not the case; or
  • advocate, promote or assist any unlawful act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.

Suspension and termination

We will determine, in our discretion, whether there has been a breach of this acceptable use policy through your use of our site. When a breach of this policy has occurred we may take such action as we deem appropriate.

Failure to comply with this acceptable use policy constitutes a material breach of these terms of use upon which you are permitted to use our site, and may result in our taking all or any of the following actions:

  • issue of a warning to you;
  • immediate, temporary or permanent withdrawal of your right to use our site;
  • immediate, temporary or permanent removal of any posting or material uploaded by you to our site;
  • issue legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs on an indemnity basis (including, but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs) resulting from your breach;
  • further legal action against you; and/or
  • disclose such information to law enforcement authorities as we reasonably feel is necessary.

We exclude liability for actions we may take in response to your breaches, actual or alleged, of this acceptable use policy. The responses described in this policy are not limited, and we may take any other action we deem appropriate.

Changes to this acceptable use policy

We may revise this acceptable use policy at any time. You are expected to check these terms of use from time to time to take notice of any changes we make, as they are legally binding on you. Some of the provisions contained in the acceptable use policy may also be superseded by provisions or notices published elsewhere on our site.

5. Intellectual property rights

We are the owner, or the licensee, of all intellectual property rights in our site, and in the material and works published on the site. Copyright laws and treaties around the world protect the material and works. All such rights are reserved.

You may print off one (1) copy, and may download extracts, of any page(s) from our site for your personal reference and you may draw the attention of others to material posted on our site.

You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text.

Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of material on our site(s) must always be acknowledged in any subsequent work into which you incorporate such printed or downloaded material.

You must not use any part of the materials on our site for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or from our (third party) licensors.

If you print off, copy or download any part of our site in breach of these terms of use your right to use our site will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made.

6. Reliance on information posted

Commentary and other materials posted on our site are not intended to amount to advice on which reliance should be placed. We therefore disclaim all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on such materials by you or any other visitor to our site, or by anyone who may be informed of any of its contents.

7. Our site changes regularly

We aim to update our site regularly, and we may change the content at any time. If the need arises, we may suspend access to our site, or close one (1) or more of them indefinitely. Any of the material on our site may be out of date at any given time, and we are under no obligation to update such material.

8. Our liability

The material displayed on our site or, where applicable, available for download is provided “as is” and does not contain any guarantees, conditions or warranties as to its accuracy or suitability for any purpose. To the extent permitted by law, we, other members of our group of companies and third parties connected to us hereby expressly exclude:

  • all conditions, warranties and other terms which might otherwise be implied by statute, common law or the law of equity;
  • any liability for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage incurred by any user in connection with our site or in connection with the use, inability to use, or results of the use of our site, any websites linked to it and any materials posted on it, including, without limitation any liability for loss of income or revenue; loss of business; loss of profits or contracts; loss of anticipated savings; loss of data; loss of goodwill; wasted management or office time; and any other loss or damage of any kind, however arising and whether arising by way of tort (including negligence), breach of contract or otherwise, even if foreseeable.

This does not affect our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, nor our liability for fraudulent misrepresentation or misrepresentation as to a fundamental matter, nor any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a distributed denial-of-service attack, viruses or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of our site or to your downloading of any material posted on it, or on any website linked to it.

9. Uploading material to our site

Whenever you make use of a feature that allows you to upload material to our site, or to make contact with other users of our site, you agree to comply with the content standards set out in our acceptable use policy. You warrant that any such contribution does comply with those standards, and you indemnify us for any breach of that warranty.

Any material you upload to our site will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary, and we have the right to use or copy such material for our own purposes at our sole discretion and to distribute and disclose any such material to third parties for any purpose. We also have the right, subject to reasonable prior notice to you, to disclose your identity to any third party who is claiming that any material posted or uploaded by you to our site constitutes a violation of their intellectual property rights, or of their right to privacy.

Where you are offered a facility to upload photos or video on our site you will be prompted to read a permission note. You will be asked to accept that by uploading the photo/video you acknowledge and confirm that you have the full permission of anyone in that photo/video and where that person is under 12 years of age, the permission of a parent or guardian was obtained. In completing this step you accept full responsibility and liability for the material that you have uploaded.

We will not be responsible, or liable to any third party, for the content or accuracy of any materials posted by you or any other user of our site.

We have the right to remove any material or posting you make on our site if, in our opinion, such material does not comply with the content standards set out in our acceptable use policy or for any other reason.

10. Blogs

Blogs on the site may permit users to submit comments to the blogs. Our staff, in their sole discretion, may review, edit and shorten the submitted comments. Our staff, in their sole discretion may select certain comments to post. Blog comments may include one (1) or more of the following: your screen name, first name, last name initial and state. In some instances, we may ask users how they would like to be identified in a blog comment.

By making a comment to a blog, you are representing and warranting: 1) that you comply with our acceptable use policy; and 2) that your comment does not breach the rights of any other person or entity. You will not receive any compensation for your comment or for granting any of these rights and we are not obligated to use your comment.

11. Linking to our site

You may link to our website provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it, but you must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists.

Our site must not be framed on any other site. We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice. The website from which you are linking must comply in all respects with the content standards set out in our acceptable use policy.

If you wish to make any use of material on our site other than that set out above, please send your request to creatingourfuture@sfi.ie.

12. Links from our site

Where our site contains links to other sites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources, and accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.

13. Jurisdiction and applicable law

These terms of use are governed by and shall be construed in accordance with Irish law. The Irish courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any claim arising from, or related to, a visit to our site although we retain the right to bring proceedings against you for breach of these conditions in your country of residence or any other relevant country.

14. Variations

We may revise these terms of use at any time by amending this page. You are expected to check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we made, as they are binding on you. Some of the provisions contained in these terms of use may also be superseded by provisions or notices published elsewhere on our site.

15. Your concerns (reporting abusive content)

If you have any concerns about material that appears on our site, please email creatingourfuture@sfi.ie, call (01) 607 3000 or post to:

Science Foundation Ireland,
Three Park Place,
Hatch Street Upper,
D02 FX65,
Ireland