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COOPERATION PROTOCOL between Instituto Nacional de Estatística, I.P. (Statistics Portugal), the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, I.P. (FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology) and the Directorate-General for Education and Science Statistics (DGEEC)

Whereas;

1 - The INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE ESTATÍSTICA, I.P. (Statistics Portugal) is a public institute under a special regime, part of the State's indirect administration, endowed with administrative autonomy, which mission is to produce and disseminate official statistical information in an effective, efficient and impartial manner, and which pursues attributions in the area of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, under the tutelage of the Prime Minister or other member of the Government integrated in the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, under the terms of Decree-Law no. 136/2012, of 2 July;

Law no. 22/2008 of 13 May (the National Statistical System Law - SEN) establishes the principles, rules and structure of the SEN, and dedicates paragraphs 7 and 8 of Article 6 to the rules for the provision of individual statistical data, on natural and legal persons, for scientific purposes, in an anonymised form;

Statistics Portugal is entitled to promote access to individual statistical data for scientific purposes, in compliance with the provisions of those Regulations;

2 - The DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR EDUCATION AND SCIENCE STATISTICS (DGEEC) is a central service of the State’s direct administration, endowed with administrative autonomy, which mission is to ensure the production and statistical analysis of education and science, technically supporting the formulation of policies and strategic and operational planning, to create and ensure the proper functioning of the integrated information system of the Ministry of Education and Science, to observe and assess the overall results obtained by the education and scientific and technological systems, in conjunction with the other services of the MEC, under the terms of Decree-Law no. 125/2011 of 29 December, as amended, and Regulatory Decree no. 13/2012 of 20 January;

DGEEC is part of the National Statistical System, as the delegated body of Statistics Portugal for the production of statistics on the educational, scientific and technological system;

The DGEEC, within the scope of its responsibilities, ensures, namely, the articulation with the competent services and entities within the National Statistical System, regarding information on the educational and scientific and technological systems, having individual databases of the respondents of the Survey on National Scientific and Technological Potential and of the Scientific and Teaching Employment Observatory, reason why it is competent for the accreditation of researchers;

3 - The Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. (FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology) is a public institute of special regime, under the terms of the law, integrated in the State’s indirect administration, endowed with administrative and financial autonomy and its own patrimony, which mission is to continuously promote the advancement of scientific and technological knowledge in Portugal, supervised by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, under the terms of Decree-Law no. 55/2013 of 17 April;

Between:

The Instituto Nacional de Estatística, IP, hereinafter referred to as Statistics Portugal, legal person no. 502237490, with headquarters at Av. António José de Almeida, Lisbon, hereby represented by its President of the Board, Francisco Miguel Garcia Gonçalves de Lima, position to which he was appointed by the Resolution of the Council of Ministers no. 8/2018, of 11 January, published in the Official Gazette, 1st series, of 15 January, amended by the Resolution of the Council of Ministers no. 10/2018, of 25 January, published in the Official Gazette, 1st series, of 31 January, which intervenes as the 1st party,

and

The Directorate-General for Education and Science Statistics, hereinafter referred to as DGEEC, with headquarters at Av. 24 de Julho, 134 – 5º andar, 1399-054 Lisbon, legal person of public law no. 600084906, hereby represented by the Director General, Nuno Miguel Correia dos Santos Neto Rodrigues, position to which he was appointed by Order no. 7967/2020, published in the Official Gazette, 2nd series, no. 158/2020, of 14 August 2020, with competences proper of the holders of 1st degree senior management positions, provided for in article 7(3)(e) of Law no. 2/2004, of 15 January, as amended, which intervenes as the 2nd party,

and

The Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., abbreviated to FCT, with headquarters at Avenida D. Carlos I, 126, 1º, in Lisbon, legal person number 503904040, represented by its Chairperson, Helena Margarida Nunes Pereira, position to which she was appointed by the Resolution of the Council of Ministers no. 65/2019, published in the Official Gazette, 1st series, no. 71, of 10 April, which intervenes as 3rd party,

this Protocol is concluded and shall be governed by the following clauses:

Clause 1
(Object)

The purpose of this Protocol is to establish the forms of cooperation between the Parties as regards the establishment of access conditions, for scientific purposes, to anonymised individual statistical data contained in databases at Statistics Portugal, produced by Statistics Portugal, by entities with delegated powers and other administrative sources, included in the National Data Infrastructure of Statistics Portugal, with a view to implementing the provisions of Article 6(7) and (8) of Law no. 22/2008, of 13 May (National Statistical System Law - SEN).

Clause 2
(Scope)

Access to the data referred to in the previous clause may be granted, by accreditation:

to researchers working in entities, structures and networks dedicated to the production, dissemination and transmission of knowledge in the national science and technology system (R&D institutions, collaborative laboratories, technological interface centres, science and technology infrastructures, networks and consortia of science and technology - according to Decree-Law no. 63/2019 of 16 May, article 14 and article 15), holders of a ‘Ciência ID’ (Science ID) identification and who appear in the individual databases of respondents to the Survey on National Scientific and Technological Potential (IPCTN) or the Scientific and Teaching Employment Observatory, both under the responsibility of DGEEC;
to students with ongoing doctoral theses and who are included in the official national register of doctoral theses (established in RENATES, at the time of signing this protocol, or any other that may replace it);
to master’s degree students, provided that the request is signed by a supervisor of the thesis in progress, a professor at a legally recognised national higher education institution;
to applicants carrying out R&D activities in international organisations of recognised reputation and experience in scientific research, namely specialised agencies/structures of the European Commission; specialised agencies of the United Nations (International Labour Organisation (ILO), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), World Health Organisation (WHO), World Bank Group; International Monetary Fund (IMF); and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD);
to researchers from other research organisations that appear on the list of entities recognised by Eurostat on the date of data access, pursuant to Article 4 of Regulation no. 557/2013 implementing Regulation no. 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council on European statistics, concerning access to confidential data for scientific purposes.

Clause 3
(Data Modalities)

1. Access to anonymised individual statistical data contained in the databases to be made available under this protocol shall be guaranteed by Statistics Portugal, under the terms laid down in Article 2(d) of the SEN Law, and in accordance with the recommendations and best practices of international statistical institutions, in the following manner:
1. Anonymised individual statistical databases (BDEIA);
2. Tabulations, in the form of statistical tables, at the specific request of the researcher.
2. Exceptionally, when the nature of the data or the research justifiably requires it, access may be effected by tabulation carried out by the duly accredited researcher directly on the individual databases, without direct identification of the statistical units, the researcher being subject to professional secrecy under the terms of Article 6(2)(d) of the SEN Law.
3. This access is carried out in a safe environment (safe centre) in accordance with the information security policies and procedures in force at Statistics Portugal, implying a strict control by Statistics Portugal of the accessed information and a prior verification of the tabulations made by the researcher, so as to ensure that the results do not contain confidential data (direct and indirect identification).

Clause 4
(Forms of access to data)

The data, referred to in paragraph 1 of the previous clause, are made available on an internal Cloud platform at Statistics Portugal, which the researcher accesses by means of two-factor authentication, so as to guarantee access only to the main investigator who is accredited.
Access in a secure environment, as referred to in paragraph 3 of the previous clause, shall be provided at Statistics Portugal's premises (safe centre), or remotely, in locations where secure remote access subject to equivalent security conditions is made available and recognised by Statistics Portugal

Clause 5
(Obligations of Statistics Portugal)

Within the scope of its tasks and in the pursuit of the Mission of public interest, Statistics Portugal shall:

Ensure free access, in digital format, to the BDEIA, identified and published on Statistics Portugal's portal and on DGEEC's website;
Provide tabulations, in the form of statistical tables, at the specific request of the researcher, as long as deemed technically feasible by Statistics Portugal;
Provide the statistical metadata concerning the databases referred to in subparagraph (a), as well as their record drawings containing, inter alia, the description of the fields, variables, categories and codes for coding or constructing variables;
Promote the availability of other BDEIA from Statistics Portugal, from entities with delegated powers of Statistics Portugal and others from administrative sources after integration in the National Data Infrastructure;
Promote and make available Public Use Files (PUFs);
Provide a secure remote access service for researchers to anonymised individual statistical data;
Promote and participate in training and dissemination actions regarding this Protocol, the statistical sources and the conditions of access, directed at the scientific community, with the logistical support of the FCT and the DGEEC, to be defined jointly;
Collaborate with FCT and DGEEC in the implementation of the online accreditation system for researchers;
Collaborate with FCT and DGEEC in keeping updated the Code of Conduct for researchers regarding the use of individual statistical data for scientific purposes;
Collaborate with FCT and DGEEC in promoting the use of the Open Science infrastructures, as mentioned in clause 6(e) and (f), in relation to researchers who use the data granted under the scope of this protocol.

Clause 6
(Obligations of FCT)

In fulfilling its mission to support research programmes and projects, FCT shall:

Collaborate with Statistics Portugal and DGEEC on the implementation of an online accreditation system for researchers;
Collaborate in activities to disseminate this Protocol among the scientific community;
Provide logistical support to Statistics Portugal in the training initiatives referred to in subparagraph (g) of the previous clause;
Collaborate with Statistics Portugal and DGEEC in keeping updated the Code of Conduct for researchers regarding the use of individual statistical data for scientific purposes;
Promote the availability of Open Science infrastructures, in particular the repositories of scientific publications in open access of the RCAAP network (Open Access Scientific Repository of Portugal), the repository of scientific research work obtained as a result of the use of the BDEIA, according to the Open Science policies in force in the rules promoted by FCT, I.P.;
Collaborate with Statistics Portugal and DGEEC in promoting the use of the Open Science infrastructures, as mentioned in the previous subparagraph, in relation to researchers who use the data granted under the scope of this protocol.

Clause 7
(Obligations of DGEEC)

In fulfilling its Mission, DGEEC shall:

Provide an online accreditation system for researchers, in collaboration with Statistics Portugal and FCT;
Accredit the applicant researchers, verifying their compliance with the criteria referred to in clause 2;
Collaborate in activities to disseminate this Protocol among the scientific community;
Collaborate with Statistics Portugal and FCT in keeping updated the Code of Conduct for researchers regarding the use of individual statistical data for scientific purposes;
Collaborate with Statistics Portugal and FCT in promoting the use of the Open Science infrastructures, as mentioned in clause 6(e) and (f), in relation to researchers who use the data granted under the scope of this protocol.

Clause 8
(Confidentiality)

Data for the purposes of this Protocol shall be transferred by means of an agreement between Statistics Portugal and the researcher, in accordance with Annex I, after the latter has been accredited by DGEEC;
In addition to the agreement set forth in the previous paragraph, in situations where access to databases is carried out in a safe environment (safe centre), the researcher undertakes to respect the respective operating rules, which are set out in a document provided to him/her when accessing the data.

Clause 9
(Monitoring Committee)

1. The Monitoring Committee for the implementation of this Protocol shall be composed of one representative and one alternate from each of the parties, to be appointed within ten working days of the date of signature of this Protocol.

2. The Monitoring Committee is responsible for:

Assessing the implementation of the Protocol periodically by drawing up reports, which must be submitted at least once a year;
Assessing the performance of the technical infrastructure and proposing upgrades;
Proposing to the parties, based on the reports contained in subparagraph (a) of this clause, the renewal of the Protocol during the last year of its validity and at least three months before its expiry.

Clause 10
(Validity)

This Protocol shall be in force for a period of five years and shall be renewable for periods of equal duration upon proposal by the Monitoring Committee, under the terms of subparagraph (c) of the previous Clause, unless terminated by either party by means of a registered letter addressed to the other parties three months before the end of the period in question.

Clause 11
(Non-compliance)

The non-compliance with this Protocol by any of the Parties, which cannot be resolved by agreement, constitutes justifiable grounds for its termination.

Date, 18 May 2022

For the Instituto Nacional de Estatística I.P.

Francisco Miguel Garcia Gonçalves de Lima (President)

For the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, I.P.

Helena Margarida Nunes Pereira (Chairperson)

For the Directorate-General for Education and Science Statistics

Nuno Miguel Correia dos Santos Neto Rodrigues (Director General)