Last updated: 10 September 2026
This Privacy Policy explains how ResearchTeam (“ResearchTeam”, “we”, “us”) collects, uses, shares, and protects personal information when you use the website and services at https://research.team (the “Service”). ResearchTeam is a platform for research team formation: grant discovery, researcher profiles, and AI-assisted collaborator matching.
Information we collect
- Account data. When you create an account we collect your name, email address, and a username. Authentication is handled by Amazon Cognito; if you sign in with Google or ORCID, we receive the information described below. We never receive or store your password for those providers.
- Profile data. Information you choose to add to your researcher profile, such as title, institution, department, academic status, biography, research interests, education, experience, publications, grants, current projects, phone number, profile picture, résumé, and links to LinkedIn, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, X/Twitter, ORCID, or a personal website.
- Content you create. Direct messages, group messages and replies, posts, comments, reactions, file attachments, saved grants, follows, group memberships, bug reports, and messages you send us through contact forms.
- Technical data. Server and access logs including IP address, browser and device information, pages visited, and timestamps. These are used for security, abuse prevention, rate limiting, and diagnostics.
- Cookies and local storage. Used to keep you signed in and to remember preferences such as your theme. See our Cookie Policy.
- Publicly available research data. We ingest public records from sources including Grants.gov (funding opportunities) and OpenAlex (scholarly authors and works). See “Profiles created from public sources” below.
Google user data
If you choose to sign in with Google, we request only the openid, email, and profile scopes. From these we receive your Google account email address, name, and profile picture URL. We use this information solely to create and authenticate your ResearchTeam account and to pre-fill your profile. We do not access your Gmail, Google Drive, Calendar, Contacts, or any other Google service.
ResearchTeam’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. We do not sell Google user data, do not use it for advertising, and do not transfer it to third parties except as needed to provide the Service, comply with the law, or as part of the security operations described below. You can revoke ResearchTeam’s access at any time from your Google account permissions page.
ORCID
If you sign in with or link an ORCID iD, we receive your ORCID iD and the name associated with it. We store the ORCID iD on your profile so that it can be displayed and used to verify authorship of publicly indexed work. We do not write to your ORCID record.
Profiles created from public sources
To make collaborator discovery useful from day one, ResearchTeam creates unclaimed researcher profiles from publicly available bibliographic metadata (primarily OpenAlex), such as name, institutional affiliation, research topics, and published works. These profiles contain only information already published publicly by scholarly indexing services.
If a profile describes you, you may claim it to gain control over its contents, or ask us to remove it by emailing support@research.team. We honour removal requests for unclaimed profiles without requiring you to create an account.
How we use your information
- To create, authenticate, and secure your account.
- To operate core features: profiles, grant discovery, messaging, groups, and the activity feed.
- To power AI-assisted search and collaborator matching, as described below.
- To send transactional email such as sign-in codes, notifications you have enabled, and important service announcements. You control optional email in your profile settings.
- To prevent abuse, enforce our Terms, debug problems, and comply with legal obligations.
We do not sell your personal information and we do not use it for third-party advertising.
AI processing
To support semantic search and matching, text from public grant descriptions and from the public portions of researcher profiles is converted into numerical embeddings using Amazon Bedrock, and the resulting vectors are stored in Amazon S3 Vectors within our own AWS account. Private content such as direct messages and group messages is not embedded. Amazon Bedrock does not use this data to train foundation models.
Information visible to other users
Your profile is visible according to the visibility setting you choose. Public profiles, and the posts, comments, and group contributions you make, can be seen by other users and may be reachable by search engines. Direct messages are visible only to you and your recipient; group messages are visible to members of that group.
Service providers
We host the Service on Amazon Web Services and share personal information with it only as needed to run the platform: Amazon Cognito (authentication), AWS Lambda and API Gateway (application), Aurora DSQL (database), Amazon S3 and CloudFront (file storage and delivery), Amazon Bedrock and S3 Vectors (embeddings and search), and Amazon SES (outbound email). We also receive data from Google and ORCID when you use those sign-in options. We do not otherwise share your personal information, except where required by law, to protect our rights or the safety of users, or in connection with a merger or acquisition (in which case we will notify you).
Data retention
We keep account and profile data while your account is active. Account deletion removes your profile, saved items, feed posts, and search embeddings, and attempts to remove your profile picture, résumé, and feed attachments from storage. Direct and group messages, including their attachments, remain available to other participants. Support and moderation records may also be retained. Backups and operational logs can contain copies of deleted data; manually created backups remain until an operator removes them. One-time sign-in codes expire within minutes. We retain email suppression records as needed to avoid sending mail to addresses that have bounced or complained.
Your rights and choices
- Access and correction. You can view and edit most of your information directly in your profile settings.
- Deletion. You can delete your account at any time from your profile settings, or by emailing us. Deletion removes your profile and content as described above.
- Email preferences. You can turn off optional notification email in your settings. Essential transactional messages, such as sign-in codes, cannot be disabled while your account is open.
- Cookies. You can clear or block cookies in your browser, though signing in will not work without them.
- EEA, UK, and Swiss users. You have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict, and port your personal data, and to object to processing. Our legal bases are performance of a contract (operating your account), legitimate interests (security, abuse prevention, and improving the Service), consent (optional email), and legal obligation. You may lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority.
- California residents. You have the right to know, delete, and correct personal information we hold, and to be free from discrimination for exercising those rights. We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined under the CCPA/CPRA.
To exercise any of these rights, email support@research.team. We respond within 30 days.
Security
Data is encrypted in transit with TLS and at rest by our cloud provider. Access to production systems is restricted and authenticated. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and will notify affected users and regulators of a breach where the law requires it.
International transfers
The Service is operated from the United States and your information is processed there. If you access ResearchTeam from outside the United States, you understand that your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States.
Children
ResearchTeam is intended for researchers and is not directed to children under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16. If you believe a child has provided us information, contact us and we will delete it.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the “Last updated” date above, and for material changes we will notify you through the Service or by email.
Contact
If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your data, email us at support@research.team.