Terms of Use

Alfred Health (ABN 27 318 956 319) of 55 Commercial Road, Melbourne, Victoria (Alfred Health) provides the Ethics Research Administration (“ERA”) as a platform designed to facilitate the submission, review, and management of all new ethics and research governance applications for research, amendments to approved research and progress reporting (“Site”). The software and web services are provided on behalf of Alfred Health by Roadhouse Digital Pty Ltd. By accessing or using this Site, you agree to comply with and be bound by these Terms of Use (“Terms”). Please read these Terms carefully. If you do not agree to these Terms, you should not use the Site.

Reference to "we" is to Alfred Health and “Administrators” means the Office of Ethics & Research Governance at Alfred Health.

Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using the Site, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Statement and consent to the collection, use and transfer of the information that you provide in the use of the Site. If you are using the Site on behalf of an organisation, you represent that you have the authority to bind that organisation to these Terms. If you breach these Terms, Alfred Health may cease your right to use the Site.

Purpose and Use of the Site

  • Authorized Use: You agree to access and use the Site solely for the purposes for which it has been designed and for which your access was granted by the Administrators, which includes submitting and managing applications for research. You may not use, and shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that no other person uses, the Site in a way that does not comply with the terms of any laws applicable to you or that is in any way unlawful.
  • Compliance with Instructions: You agree to follow any instructions provided by the Site or the Administrators.
  • Account Registration: You agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information during the account registration process and to update such information to keep it accurate, current, and complete.

Acceptable Use

  • Prohibited Activities: You agree not to engage in any activity that:
    • Violates any applicable law or regulation.
    • Interferes with or disrupts the Site or servers or networks connected to the Site.
    • Accesses, generates, stores, distributes or transmits any content that is inappropriate, unlawful, defamatory, obscene, objectionable or otherwise violates these Terms.
    • Uploads or transfers any content to external parties (e.g., cloud-based storage) without approval.
    • Attempts to gain unauthorised access to any part of the Site, other accounts, or computer systems or networks connected to the Site.
    • Violates the legal rights of others, in particular our rights (including our rights in copyright and trade marks).
    • Uses this Site for any personal use or commercial gain, nor to sell or trade in any of the content or other material copied or downloaded from this Site without our express written permission (save where acting as agent or employee of a third party in connection with an application on this Site).
    • Prints any paper copies of the content or material copied downloaded from this Site without our express written permission (save where acting as agent or employee of a third party in connection with an application on this Site).

Confidentiality and Security

  • Confidential Information: You agree to maintain the confidentiality of all information you access through the Site and not to disclose it to any third party without our written consent. Any information on the Site must be handled in accordance with these Terms, our Privacy Statement and relevant privacy laws including the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) and the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic).
  • Account Security: You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activities that occur under your account. You must not share your user-ID and password with others or log in using another person’s user-ID and password. You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorised use of your account and if you suspect that someone else has accessed the Site using your user-ID. You must also notify the Administrators of any changes to your user profile.

Submissions

  • Ethics and Research Governance Applications: All submissions, including ethics applications and related documents, are subject to review by the Administrators, our ethics committee or other designated reviewers. We will handle your submissions in accordance with our Privacy Statement and relevant laws, but please be aware that we cannot guarantee absolute confidentiality of the information transmitted through the Site.

File Management

  • Uploading Files: You agree not to upload any corrupt, damaged, or otherwise harmful files to the Site. Files must be in a format that is compatible with the Site and free from viruses or malware.
  • Destruction of Documents: You agree to follow the prescribed procedures for the destruction or deletion of documents from the Site, including paper copies that you have downloaded and printed. Unauthorised destruction of documents is prohibited.

Content and Intellectual Property

  • Ownership: All content on the Site is the property of Alfred Health or its licensors. You are granted no rights or licence in respect of the Site or its content other than a limited right to use the Site to submit your ethics application and related documents in accordance with these Terms. You may not reproduce, modify, distribute, or create derivative works based on the Site or its content without our prior written consent.
  • Licence: By submitting materials through the Site, you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive and sub-licensable licence to use, reproduce, and display such materials for the purpose of review and processing the ethics and research governance applications and all related purposes.

Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability

  • No Warranties: The Site is provided “as is” and “as available” without any conditions, warranties or guarantees of any kind, either express or implied which are expressly excluded to the extent permitted by law. We do not warrant that the Site will be uninterrupted, faulty, free of viruses or error-free. It is always wise for you to run an anti-virus program on all material downloaded from the internet.
  • Limitation of Liability: To the fullest extent permitted by law, Alfred Health shall not be liable for any loss of data, use, goodwill, or other intangible losses, whether incurred directly or indirectly, resulting from (i) your use or inability to use the Site; (ii) any unauthorised access to or use of our servers and/or any personal information stored therein; (iii) any interruption or cessation of transmission to or from the Site; or (iv) any material derived from the Site.

Changes to Terms

We reserve the right to update or modify these Terms and/or Alfred Health’s Privacy Statement at any time. Any changes will be effective immediately upon posting. Your continued use of the Site after such changes constitutes your acceptance of the new Terms and/or Privacy Statement.

Termination

We may lock, suspend or terminate your access to the Site at any time, with or without cause, and with or without notice, if we believe that you have violated these Terms or for any other reason.

Enforceability

If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid, unlawful or unenforceable to any extent, such provision shall not affect the validity, legality and enforceability of the other provisions of these Terms.

Governing Law

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Victoria, without regard to its conflict of law principles. Any disputes arising under or in connection with these Terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located in the State of Victoria, Australia.