The SWIMS team encourages collaborations and/or the sharing of data collected by the SWIMS project with well-matched high quality researchers, to ensure that the scientific potential of the SWIMS project is maximised, provided that:
- The privacy of individuals is protected and any subsequent data-sharing agreement prohibits any attempt to (a) identify study participants from the released data or otherwise breach confidentiality, (b) make unapproved contact with study participants.
- Ethical and legal consents where appropriate are obtained before the release of data or any collaboration can proceed.
- The privilege of the SWIMS team to analyse the data is not infringed by the proposal. Unnecessary duplication and competition is to be avoided.
- Data sharing must meet rigorous data security standards.
Release of the data to the applicant is dependent on the research plan being approved by the SWIMS Data-Sharing Committee; all appropriate ethical and legal approvals being obtained by the applicant; a Collaboration/Data-Sharing Agreement being in place between the SWIMS team and the academic institution that employs the researcher; and SWIMS team resources being available.Further information can be found in the SWIMS Data Sharing Policy & Guidelines Document.
