Website and Community terms and conditions

Information about us

The website accessible via www.vitae.ac.uk (the "Vitae Website") and any materials published on or generated by it (the "Website Content") have been developed and are made available by the Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) Limited ("CRAC", "we", "our" or "us").

The Vitae community accessible via communities.vitae.ac.uk (the "Vitae Community") and any materials published on or generated by it (the "Community Content") have been developed and are made available by the Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) Limited ("CRAC", "we", "our" or "us").

We are a not-for-profit company registered in England and Wales under company number 00825036 and have our registered office and main trading address at 22 Signet Court, Cambridge, CB5 8LA, United Kingdom. CRAC is a registered charity in England and Wales (registered charity number 313164). Our VAT number is GB 100205694.

The Vitae programme aims to develop world-class tools and resources for the professional and career development of researchers (doctoral researchers and research staff) in higher education institutions, research institutes and other organisations. Through the Vitae programme, CRAC works in partnership with higher education institutions, research organisations, funders, employers of researchers. and national organisations to meet society’s need for highly-skilled, innovative and world-class researchers.

Vitae is managed by CRAC: The Career Development Organisation. CRAC is the independent, UK organisation dedicated to supporting career development and active, career-related learning.

These User Terms and Conditions (together with the documents referred to in them) set out the terms on which you may use the Vitae Website/Website Content and the Vitae Community/Community Content. Please read these User Terms and Conditions carefully before you start using the Vitae Website and/or the Vitae Community. By using the Vitae Website and the Vitae Community, you indicate that you accept these User Terms and Conditions and you agree to abide by them at all times.

Your use of the Vitae Website and the Vitae Community is also subject to our Privacy Policy, which sets out the terms on which we may process any personal data we collect from you or that you provide to us. By using the Vitae Website and Vitae Community, you consent to such processing and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate. If you make use of our RDF Planner tool (accessible via http://www.rdfplanner.net/) or any other Services (as defined below), separate Terms and Conditions (see, for example, http://resources.rdfplanner.net/policies/RDFplanner-terms-and-conditions.pdf) apply to your use of those Services. Please also note that CRAC has a separate website (accessible via www.crac.org.uk) to which separate terms apply.

Please note that we may revise these Website and Community Terms at any time in accordance with section 12  below. These User Terms and Conditions were last updated in February 2015.

1.      Information about the Vitae Website and Vitae Community

The Vitae Website is an interactive, web-based service, developed by us and hosted on Microsoft's Windows Azure cloud platform. The Vitae Website contains information for researchers and those employing, supervising or managing researchers, along with tools and resources (such as the RDF Planner tool and the Vitae Community) designed to aid the professional development of researchers (the "Services").  

The Vitae Community is an interactive, web-based service, developed by us and hosted on Ning's social networking platform. The Vitae Community contains information for researchers and those employing, supervising or managing researchers, along with tools and resources (such as the RDF Planner tool and the Vitae website) designed to aid the professional development of researchers (the "Services").                 

2.      Accessing the Vitae Website, the Vitae Communities and the Services

Some content on the Vitae Website is available to anybody browsing the site (whether or not they are a registered user). Access to certain other content on the Vitae Website and the Services is restricted to:

  • Registered Users who have registered on the Vitae Website with a valid email address;
  • Organisational Members whose organisation has entered into an agreement with CRAC to use the Services and has paid the applicable annual Membership Fee.

Provided that your organisation (as applicable) have paid all relevant Membership Fees, you are entitled to access the restricted content on the Vitae Website during your Membership Period, which is calculated as the period for which the applicable Organisational Membership remains in force.

Notwithstanding your payment of all relevant Membership Fees, your right to access the restricted content on the Vitae Website shall immediately come to an end, without liability to us, if:

  • in our opinion (acting reasonably), you have failed to comply with any of the provisions of these User Terms and Conditions or any other contract in force between us or the organisation;
  • we believe (acting reasonably) that your use of the Vitae Website or the Services (or any part of them) represents a direct or indirect threat to the functioning or integrity of Microsoft's Windows Azure network, or anyone else’s use of the Microsoft Windows Azure platform;
  • it is reasonably necessary to prevent unauthorized access to any other Vitae Website user’s data;
  • it is necessary to comply with legal requirements;
  • you are an Organisational Member, and (i) your Organisation has breached the terms of its Organisational Membership; (ii) its Organisational Membership comes to an end; or (iii) your organisation terminates your access to the restricted content on the Vitae Website.

You must keep confidential any username, password or other information provided to or chosen by you in order to access the restricted content on the Vitae Website. You will not share that information with any third party nor allow any third party to access the restricted content on the Vitae Website using that information.

Access to the Vitae community is open only to those with organisational membership as described above. Your right to access the restricted content on the Vitae community come under the same conditions as access to the restricted content on the Vitae website.

3.      Suspension or termination of the Services

Access to the Services (and to any Website Content/Vitae Community content, including the restricted content, on the Vitae Website and on the Vitae Community) may be suspended or terminated by us without notice and without liability, if we decide in our sole discretion to suspend or terminate the Services.

4.      User data

We will process information submitted by you to the Vitae Website andto the Vitae Community ("User Data") and information forming part of your User Profile ("User Profile") in accordance with our Privacy Policy. By using the Vitae Website, the Vitae Community and the Services, you consent to such processing, and you agree that we may use your User Data and User Profile as set out in our Privacy Policy.

You undertake to ensure that your User Data is not defamatory, offensive or otherwise unlawful or inappropriate and does not infringe any third party’s intellectual property rights or other rights, and you agree to indemnify us for any breach of that undertaking. We have the right to remove any User Data which is (in our sole discretion) deemed inappropriate.

5.      Intellectual property rights

We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in the Vitae Website and the Website Content and the Vitae community and Community content. Those materials (which may include, but are not limited to, documents, files, text and graphics) are protected by copyright laws, trade mark laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved. The Vitae logo (registered trade mark number UK00002488330), the "CRAC" name (registered trade mark numbers UK00001338222 and UK00000907018) and other proprietary marks are trade marks of CRAC.  You may not make use of these marks without our prior written permission.

You may download and print off reports generated by the Vitae Website/Vitae community, and any page of the Vitae Website/Vitae Community, solely for the purposes of your own professional development (but not for commercial re-use), unless otherwise stated. Our status (and that of any identified contributors) as the authors of the Website/Community Content must always be acknowledged. If you print off, copy or download any part of the Website/Community Content in breach of these User Terms and Conditions, your right to use the Vitae Website/Community will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made.

To the extent that any intellectual property rights subsist in your User Data and/or User Profile, you confirm that we have the right to make such use of your User Data and/or User Profile as is stated in these User Terms and Conditions and in our Privacy Policy, as updated from time to time.

If you are an Organisational Member, you are responsible for making yourself aware of, and you must comply with, any IT use policy or similar policy of your Organisation.

6.      Prohibited use of the Vitae Website/Community and the Services

You must not (except as may be allowed by any applicable law which is incapable of exclusion, or expressly permitted under this Agreement):

  • attempt to copy, modify, translate, duplicate, create derivative works from, frame, mirror, republish, download, display, transmit, or distribute all or any portion of the Vitae Website, the Website Content. The Vitae Community or the Services in any form or media or by any means;
  • attempt to reverse compile, disassemble, reverse engineer or otherwise reduce to human-perceivable form all or any part of the Vitae Website, the Website Content. The Vitae Community or the Services;
  • license, sell, rent, lease, transfer, assign, distribute, display, disclose, or otherwise commercially exploit, or otherwise make the Vitae Website, the Website Content, the Vitae Community or the Services available to any third party;
  • attempt to gain (or assist third parties in gaining) unauthorised access to the Vitae Website, the Website Content, the Vitae Community, the Services, the servers on which the Vitae Website, the Website Content, the Vitae Community or Services are hosted or any server, computer or database connected to the Vitae Website, the Website Content, the Vitae Communities or the Services; or
  • introduce to the Vitae Website, the Vitae Communities or the Services, any viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful nor attack the Vitae Website, the Vitae Community or the Services via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of-service attack.

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 the Vitae Website or Vitae Community (or any website linked to then), the Website Content or the Services.

7.      Links from the Vitae Website/Community

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

8.      Technical support and availability

Organisational Members must contact the organisation which has the relevant Organisational Membership Subscription to access the Vitae Website/Community for technical support, and for all other support queries relating to the Vitae Website/Community.

Organisational Members: You acknowledge and agree that we are reliant on third parties to make the Vitae Website/Community available to you, and we shall not be liable if for any reason the Vitae Website/Community (including any User Data) is unavailable at any time or for any period in the case of system failure, necessary maintenance or repair or for reasons beyond our reasonable control including, without limitation, failure of infrastructure, government intervention, wars, civil commotion, hijacking, fire, flood, accident, storm, strikes, lockouts, terrorist attacks, or industrial action affecting us or our suppliers.

In the event that Microsoft's Windows Azure platform should cease to be used to host the Vitae Website for any reason, we shall use reasonable endeavours to ensure the continuity of the service and to mitigate the effects of any disruption. In the event that Nings' social Network platform should cease to be used to host the Vitae Community for any reason, we shall use reasonable endeavours to ensure the continuity of the service and to mitigate the effects of any disruption.You acknowledge and agree however that we shall not be liable for any suspension of or delay to the service incurred in those circumstances.

We reserve the right to update or change the Vitae Website/Community at any time.

9.      Self promotion and the selling of services

Self promotion for profit and the selling of services is not permitted on the Vitae Community. Vitae reserve the right to remove any user from the Vitae community who behaves in a manner deemed to contravene this condition of use.

10.      Our liability

The Vitae Website/Community has been designed to the best of our ability based on our research, experience and knowledge in this field.

Save that nothing in this section shall restrict your statutory rights, neither we nor Microsoft (as the owner of Windows Azure) nor Ning give any warranty as to the accuracy, suitability, reliability, completeness, performance, or satisfactory quality of the Vitae Website/Community, the Website/Community Content or the Services, and we give no guarantee that it will have a positive impact on your career development. Any decisions or action taken by you on the basis of your use of the Vitae Website/Community, the Website/Community Content or the Services is at your sole discretion and risk and you should obtain individual professional advice where necessary.

To the extent permitted by law and save that nothing in this section shall restrict your statutory rights, we hereby expressly exclude:

  • all conditions, warranties and other terms which might otherwise be implied by common law or the law of equity; and
  • any liability for any indirect or consequential loss or damage incurred by any user in connection with the Vitae Website/Community or in connection with the use, inability to use, or results of the use of the Vitae Website/Community, any websites linked to it or any materials posted on the Vitae Website/Community or linked websites.

To the extent permitted by law, our liability to you is limited as follows:

  • if you are an Organisational Member, and where we are liable to you for any direct loss, your sole remedy in relation to such loss will be limited to a sum equivalent to the total amount that is payable for an Individual Membership Fee during the Membership Period during which the loss arose.

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.

11.   Jurisdiction and applicable law

The English courts will have exclusive jurisdiction over any claim arising from, or related to these User Terms and Conditions or your use of the Vitae Website/Community, although we retain the right to bring proceedings against you for breach of these User Terms and Conditions in your country of residence or any other relevant country.

These User Terms and Conditions and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or their subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law of England and Wales.

12.   Contact us

If you have any questions regarding these User Terms and Conditions please contact:

Vitae c/o CRAC Ltd
22 Signet Court  
Cambridge
CB5 8LA
United Kingdom

Tel:      01223 460277
Email:  website@vitae.ac.uk

12.   Variations

We may revise these User Terms and Conditions at any time by amending this page. When we make changes we will revise the ‘last updated’ date at the top of 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.