1.1. The Terms and Conditions (T&Cs) below apply to the use of the PhD Hub platform, operated by European University Foundation - Campus Europae (“EUF”) and available under https://phdhub.eu/ (also: the “Platform”). The Platform is an online hub that aims to increase and create new cooperation opportunities between academic and non-academic stakeholders at European level, in response to their shared challenges and specificities.
By connecting researchers, enterprises and society at large, the Platform promotes intersectoral, interdisciplinary or international collaboration and fosters innovation. If a User is interested in finding or offering collaboration opportunities in their discipline(s), they may create an Account, browse existing opportunities, and create new collaboration opportunities on the Platform itself.
The Platform contains opportunities which may be searched and filtered according to Users’ preferences. For applying to an opportunity that is displayed on the platform, a User will be redirected to the respective site of a responsible third party or to the contact details of the specific relevant counterparty as listings and opportunities are never handled directly by this Platform or EUF in general.
1.2. “User” within the sense of these T&Cs are all natural persons who access the website of the Platform and thus will be able to see and navigate the Platform, as well as natural persons who register to the Platform, regardless of whether they are:
Naturally, where reference is made to a legal person, the articles of these T&Cs are to be read as referring either to that legal person or to the natural person who has physically registered on the Platform, as is reasonable from time to time under the context of each prescription.
1.3. The European University Foundation (EUF) is a network of 70 member universities established in more than 30 countries and aims to accelerate the modernisation of the European Higher Education Area. The network deploys intensive cooperation and policy experimentation under five key pillars: (1) policy innovation at national and European level, (2) entrepreneurship and employability skills of graduates, (3) active citizenship of students, (4) quality mobility for all and (5) Digital Higher Education. The pillars are particularly meaningful to the PhD Hub project as it aims to strengthen cooperation and enhance the functioning of higher education institutions through the development of innovative technological tools. EUF offers the usage of this Platform solely on the basis of these T&Cs.
1.4. By accessing the Platform, Users of each kind, and the legal persons on whose interest or behalf they act, when relevant, consent to the validity of these T&Cs.
1.5. By using our Platform, Users of each kind, and the legal persons on whose interest or behalf they act, when relevant, confirm that they oblige the national laws and obligations of their country with respect to education, doctoral and higher education offers, job offering.
1.6. EUF reserves the right to amend these T&Cs effective for the future. The amendments will not become part of the agreement until the User consents to such amendments. It is sufficient for this purpose that EUF sends the new version of the T&Cs to the email address that the User provided for information purposes, or for Users to access the Platform and use the related services. Regularly reviewing the Platform’s legal documentation ensures that Users are always aware of the latest version in force.
2.1. Accounts are the primary means to access to the non-public portions of the Platform and for using the Services. The term Account includes your personal profile and is used to identify you as well as to provide you with a variety of administrative tools.
2.2. When creating Accounts on the Platform, Users are explicitly asked to accept these T&Cs. If for any reason this is not the case, accessing an Account held on the Platform, uploading data to any Account, and/or using any of the Services connected to the Platform will still be considered as implicit acceptance of these T&Cs. Nevertheless, in such cases please contact us directly and without delay at the contact details set out in this document. Please also note that acceptance of these T&Cs also implies that you have read, understood and accepted the Platform Privacy Policy.
2.3. By accepting these T&Cs, and the connected Privacy Policy, the Users may represent that they are acting on behalf of an institution and thus they either have the legal authority to also bind such institution to the present T&Cs.
3.1. The Platform is an online showcase on which Users can offer various types of opportunities in order for them to be shown to other Users.
3.2. EUF itself does not offer any opportunity; it merely acts as the Platform manager.
3.3. The Platform relies on Users to provide appropriate accurate information and to keep such information updated. We (EUF) do not verify the accuracy or currency of any information uploaded or provided to us by Users unless we have expressly stated that we do. If you are a publishing User you acknowledge and agree that you are solely responsible for the content of the information uploaded or provided to us in respect of any opportunity offered on the Platform. If you are a User searching for opportunities you acknowledge and agree that We will have no liability in respect of any information uploaded to the Platform or provided to us by any other User about the opportunity and that your proper remedy in respect of any loss or damage you may suffer arising out of or in connection with the written information displayed in respect of the accommodation is against the relevant User or institution.
3.4. From the Platform you may use or access services, promotions and websites of third parties. In using or accessing third party services, promotions and websites, you agree to be bound by the terms of service of such third parties governing their services pursuant to the relevant rules that you may find in such websites, and hereby acknowledge that We shall not be responsible for the provision of services, accuracy of promotions or content of websites belonging or operated by third parties.
3.5. Users are responsible for their adherence to the provisions governed by any applicable laws.
4.1. The registration of Users is required in order to make full use of the Platform and post opportunities for other Users.
4.2. Registration is free of charge and requires that Users accept these T&Cs.
4.3. Registration is only available to natural persons that have full legal capacity. Multiple registrations under different member names are prohibited. An account is personal and can therefore not be transferred to any other person.
4.4. When registering, Users undertake to provide accurate, up-to-date and complete information as required by the registration form, including but not limited to, first and last name, a valid email address and, where relevant, the name and type of the institution they work with. All provided data must be up-to-date and correct at all times. Notwithstanding the above, We reserve the right at any time to request confirmation and/or proof of identity of the individuals associated with any Accounts, also in order to ensure that there is no unauthorised access to the Platform.
4.5. When registering, Users choose a password to accompany their email address. Users are fully responsible to safeguard their access credentials - including in the sense of the combination of email and password - and to hold EUF harmless from any damages that may be suffered by EUF itself or by third parties due to the unauthorised disclosure, use and distribution of such credentials, unless such damages are due to wilful misconduct or gross negligence by EUF. Users must immediately notify EUF of: (a) any account-related abuses; (b) the unauthorized disclosure, use and distribution of their account credentials by or to any third party. Following such notification, We may renew the credentials of the respective account and/or take any other measures reasonably necessary to protect the same including, if necessary, its deletion.
4.6. Accounts may be public or private at the preference of the relevant User, and this attribute may be changed after the creation of the Accounts. By selecting to have a public Account, Users understand and agree that their Account data may be accessed by other Users and may be paired with the opportunities they publish on the Platform.
5.1. Any individual registering to the Platform is solely responsible for (and ensures) the following:
This also applies when Users upload pictures or fill in free text sections in their Accounts and when they add files, links, and/or call to action buttons to their published opportunities.
5.2. The Users are responsible for ensuring that the opportunities they publish are described correctly and completely. They must provide the information in the Platform’s required fields at a minimum so that the opportunities are described with sufficient accuracy. Incorrect information may be, without prior notice, eliminated by us and the relevant Account may be disabled or removed from the Platform.
5.3. Notwithstanding the above, each User must independently verify the identity of their respective counterparties when searching or applying for opportunities, considering that the Platform only works as a showcase and no opportunity is directly handled through the Platform. We accept no liability for the accuracy of the information entered on the Platform.
5.4. Users must not use addresses, contact data, or e-mail addresses that they obtain by using the Platform for any purpose other than for those for which they were communicated. In particular, these data must not be forwarded to any unauthorised persons or used to send advertising, unless the relevant individuals have expressly granted their consent in advance to do so.
5.5. We do not give away any contact details of any kind of Users to other Users or to any third party, except as indicated in our Privacy Policy.
5.6. Users agree to hold EUF and any person or entity attributable to it, harmless from any and all adverse consequences, damages, claims, demands for payment, and costs that may arise by reason of a breach attributable to them of the above commitments or other commitments made under these T&Cs. Use of the Platform in violation of any of the above commitments may result in termination of accounts and prohibition of use of the Platform at our sole discretion.
5.7. A user of the Platform is allowed to use the Platform only for non-commercial purposes. A user is not allowed to (i) disassemble, reverse engineer or decompile in any other way any software, application, or hardware contained in or available via the Platform except as permitted by law, or (ii) copy, distribute, communicate to the public, sell, rent, lend or otherwise use the content of the Platform except as permitted by law (iii) use any automated program or application to scan, copy, index, sort or otherwise exploit the Platform content or any part thereof.
6.1. Users themselves are solely responsible for the content they expose on the Platform and agree to indemnify EUF against any third-party claims resulting from such content. In particular, this indemnification also includes the costs of appropriate prosecution and legal defence.
6.2. Users ensure that the uploaded content does not violate applicable law or legal provisions, common decency, or third-party rights (naming rights, personality rights, copyright, data protection rights, etc.).
6.3. By exposing multimedia content, Users grant EUF a free, revocable, unlimited, non-local right of use that can be sub-licensed to such multimedia content. In particular, such right of use comprises the right to process the multimedia content for the purposes of the Platform and to make it available to other Users, in printed or electronic form, by wired or wireless connection. The usage rights also include the right to integrate multimedia content on websites from relevant institutions.
6.4. EUF is free to use any comments, information, pictures or ideas contained in any communication Users may expose to EUF and/or the Platform without compensation, acknowledgement or payment to the Users for any purpose whatsoever, including, but not limited to, developing, manufacturing and promoting products and services and creating, modifying or improving the services or website. For the avoidance of doubt, all such information will be deemed by EUF to be non-confidential and non-proprietary, and the Users agree that such information may be used by EUF without any limitation whatsoever.
6.5. The content offered via the Platform is protected by copyright. The platform is generally accessed and utilised individually by natural persons using a web browser. The use of technologies such as web spiders, crawlers, or similar programmes, the purpose of which is not just the indexing of content but also the mass accessing and saving of the Platform’s content is prohibited. This also applies in particular to technologies that enable so-called screen scraping and other third-party services.
6.6. In the event of a violation of these prohibitions and the guidelines of these T&Cs, EUF is entitled to refuse acceptance of content, to delete and block content immediately and to delete the pages and links to them immediately. In such cases the user has no right to the restoration of their multimedia content on the Platform or the release of their deleted account.
7.1. Users have no legal claim to permanent use of the Platform. In particular, EUF is not required to ensure that the platform is available or can be reached at all times. However, EUF endeavours to maintain operation of the platform with as few disruptions as possible and to continue to develop it in line with relevant requirements.
7.2. EUF can temporarily restrict use if this is necessary in terms of security, integrity, capacity limits, or the performance of technical measures (maintenance work). In particular, EUF will take Users legitimate interests into account by notifying them in advance.
8.1. The Platform includes links to websites on the Internet maintained by third parties, the content of which is not known to EUF. We merely provide access to the websites and accept no responsibility for the content. The links to third-party Internet sites merely serve to facilitate navigation. We do not adhere with the views expressed on other websites to which the Platform is linked, and rather hereby expressly distance ourselves from all content on all websites content.
8.2. The owners of the Internet sites to which the Platform hyperlinks are solely responsible for both their content and the goods or services offered there.
9.1. If there are specific indications that a user is culpably violating legal provisions, third-party rights, or these T&Cs or if We otherwise have a legitimate interest, particularly with regard to protecting our users against fraudulent activities, We can take one or more of the following actions:
We also take the legitimate interests of the User in question into consideration when choosing between such measures. As far as reasonable, the user will receive prior warning by us so that they have the opportunity to take any potential remedial action. If a previous warning is not a pursuable option, e.g., because blocking is necessary to prevent any damage to EUF, the Platform, or another user, the User will be subsequently informed of the blocking as soon as possible, and then be given the opportunity to comment and take any potential remedial action.
9.2 After a user has been permanently blocked, they are not entitled to have the blocked account restored. The User will also no longer be permitted to use the Platform with other accounts or to re-register.
10.1. We are fully liable for damages caused with intent or through gross negligence directly or through our employees or agents, and if a guarantee was expressly assumed.
10.2. We are liable for other damages only if they arise from violation of a duty whose fulfilment is necessary to make the proper implementation of the T&Cs possible. Our duty to pay compensation is limited to such damages that are considered typical for the agreement and foreseeable.
10.3. As EUF does not participate in the relationships between Users, We accept no liability for such relationships.
10.4. Users acknowledge and agree that EUF is not responsible for the accuracy of any information published on the Platform by Users and does not warrant that any information appearing on the Platform is accurate, true or complete. Therefore, We specifically exclude liability for any loss, harm, distress or damage suffered by you or any third party as a result of inaccurate information appearing on the Platform.
11.1. EUF is authorised to transfer its rights and obligations under this agreement in full or in part to third parties.
11.2. Any dispute related to the present T&Cs concerning their application, binding nature, interpretation, whether directly or indirectly, shall be governed by the law of the Duchy of Luxembourg.
11.3. If individual provisions of these T&Cs are or become wholly or partially invalid, the other provisions remain valid.
11.4. All declarations and communications to be sent in connection with the user agreement to be concluded with us must be issued in writings.
11.5. In case any such dispute cannot be settled amicably between the Users and us, it shall be submitted to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Luxembourg.
11.6. All details regarding the Privacy Policy of the Platform may be found here: https://phdhub.eu/privacy-policy/
11.7. For feedback, questions or other comments regarding this T&Cs, please contact us by writing to contact@phdhub.eu
- last updated: 9 February 2023
