Instructions for research permit applicants

Applying for a research permit

• When someone is conducting research or a study or writing a thesis on the organisation of the City of Tampere, a research permit is usually required. The research permit is granted separately for each study, and it must be applied for by the person responsible for the study or the head researcher. 
• The research permit practices of the City of Tampere are based on the City Group Regulations (from 10 April 2019), which can be found through the link below. The regulations also specify when a research permit is not needed. Studies commissioned by the City of Tampere based on its own interests are conducted in accordance with the applicable research or public procurement procedures. 
• A research permit is applied for by using the electronic application form which can be found on the city's external website at Instructions and permits for researchers.
• The sections applicable to the study in question shall be filled out on the application form. 
• The research permit form will also be filled out as applicable in the case of, for example, a national research project in which Tampere is one of the research sites. 
• The granting of a research permit requires that the applicant has been personally in contact with the city unit involved in the study and that the unit in question has agreed to the implementation of the study. The unit shall also appoint a contact person for the study. 
• When necessary, the contact persons in the city units shall provide assistance with the practical arrangements of the study on behalf of the city. 
• If the study focuses on several similar units within the same sector or service area (such as different day-care centres or schools), appointing a contact person from one unit is sufficient. In such cases, the same form is used to apply for a research permit for all the relevant units.
• If the study focuses on several different units, each of these units must have a separate contact person for the study. 
• The information requested on the permit application must be filled in carefully. The party granting the permit may ask the researcher for any additional information that is deemed necessary for making the permit decision. 
• The research permit application must always be accompanied by a research plan and, in the case of certain studies, also by other documents, such as opinions and a description of the scientific research. 
• The research permit application will be submitted for processing via the electronic form, and an automatic notification will be sent of all stages of the process to the applicant, the city contact persons and, in the case of theses, also to the thesis supervisor to their respective e-mail addresses indicated on the application. 
• A notification of the permit decision will also be sent to the applicant and the above-mentioned persons by e-mail. 
• The research work cannot be started before the research permit has been granted.

Use of information systems, data protection and ethical practices

The processing of personal data contained in the research material must be carried out in compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act. If personal data are processed in the study, it is necessary to inform the participants and other parties by preparing a privacy statement which describes the measures taken in the study to process personal data. 

University guidelines on the processing of personal data in research:

Tampere University
Aalto University
University of Jyväskylä
 

Use of data obtained from information systems

• If the research data includes customer, patient or personal data stored in the registers of the City of Tampere, the relevant data and information systems must be specified on the research permit form. Access may be granted to a personal data system controlled by an authority under section 16(3) of the Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999). 
• The contact person for the study will determine the need for information and the suitable information systems in collaboration with the researcher. The disclosure of personal data requires that the contact person must familiarise the researcher with the data protection practices of the City of Tampere. 
• The primary method of disclosing data to the researcher from an information system is that the contact person for the study will print out the data from the system using their own user ID. If this is not possible, the researcher can be given the necessary access rights to the information system. 
• The contact person for the study is responsible for obtaining the rights from the main user or system administrator and for providing the researcher with the necessary information security orientation. This is done by filling in and signing the "Application for access rights to information systems" form, which can be obtained from the system administrators. 
• User rights to the Pegasos system are granted by the welfare services archive. The user IDs for the systems are personal and they must be obtained separately for each researcher.
• In addition, each researcher must sign the "Use and non-disclosure agreement for data and information systems".
• The user rights are limited to a certain period and only to data pertaining to the study. 
• If the data collection requires system-level database extractions, the contact person shall check the applicable data transfer practices and costs with the information management unit. As a rule, the researcher shall pay all costs. 

Protection of research data

• Customer information is confidential.
• The data collection forms must be designed so that the identification data can be separated and destroyed. The material shall be analysed without any identifiers, or the personal data must be encrypted whenever possible.
• The researcher must process the data with care and protect the privacy of the data subjects.
• When the personal data are no longer necessary for the purposes of the study or to verify that the results are appropriate, all registers containing personal details that were compiled during the study shall be destroyed or modified in such a way that the data subjects cannot be identified. 
• The method and location of storing the material archives shall be described in the permit application. As a rule, the data must be available for further research use in the City of Tampere.

Other permits

• The researcher is responsible for finding out if other permits are needed to carry out the study. For example, the permits required for interviewing and studying minors are determined in accordance with the principles of ethical review in human sciences laid down by the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity (Tenk).
• A statement from the ethics committee may also be required for medical and nursing science studies. A statement from the ethics committee is always required when the research involves intervention in the physical or psychological integrity of a patient as referred to in Finnish legislation concerning the rights of patients (Medical Research Act 488/1999, Act on the Status and Rights of Patients 785/1992, Act on the Status and Rights of Social Welfare Clients 812/2000, and subsequent amendments expanding the scope of the acts). 
• Regional Ethics Committee of the Expert Responsibility area of Tampere University Hospital provides opinions on medical research on humans and human embryos as well as foetuses within the Pirkanmaa Hospital District and its Expert Responsibility area.
• The Ethics Committee of the Pirkanmaa Hospital District does not issue statements on UAS level research. Instead, a research permit granted to such studies by the City of Tampere is sufficient. 
• More information on the opinions and statements issued by the Pirkanmaa Hospital District Ethics Committee can be found on the website of the hospital district: https://www.tays.fi/en-US/Research_and_development/Ethics_Committee.
• The Ethics Committee of the Tampere Region is responsible for overseeing the ethical reviews of proposed non-medical research in the field of human sciences at the local universities, higher education institutions and research institutes and, through its opinions and activities, promoting the ethics of said research in its area. For more information on the Committee's opinions, see the website of the Ethics Committee of the Tampere Region.

Appendices to the application

• The application must always be accompanied by a research plan. 
• Other additional attachments that are necessary for granting the permit may also be attached to the application. 
• The unit processing the research permit may ask the applicant to provide any additional information it deems necessary. 
• If the Ethics Committee has issued an opinion on the study, the opinion shall be attached to the application. 

Completion of the research

• The researcher must submit the completed study to the city contact person named in the research permit. In addition, the researcher must send a notification of the completed study to tietojohtaminen(a)tampere.fi and include in the message a link to the study if it is available in an electronic format.