Privacy notice

1. Controller

eRelation AG – Content in Health, represented by Peter Stegmaier, Johannes-von-Hanstein-Str. 2, 53115 Bonn, Germany. Contact details in the legal notice.

2. What applies to all services

This notice applies to all online services of Monitor Versorgungsforschung: the Knowledge Hubs, Innovationsfonds-Wissen, the funding radar and the CuratioHub. Anything that applies to one service only is set out in that service's own section.

All services consist of pre-built (static) pages. They embed no third-party analytics or tracking services and set no cookies of their own accord. Fonts, images and program code are served from the same servers as the pages. Beyond the audience measurement described in section 3, data leave your device only in the cases described in the sections on the individual services – essentially when you click a link yourself or submit a form.

Preference cookie for the display mode

If you explicitly choose “Light” or “Dark” with the “Appearance” switch, your browser stores this choice in a cookie named mvf-theme. It contains only the value “light” or “dark” – no identifier and no personal data. It applies to all services under m-vf.de, so that your choice is the same everywhere, and expires after one year. Choosing “Like my device” deletes it immediately; the display then follows your device setting again. Your browser sends the cookie along when you call up our pages; we neither evaluate nor store it. As long as you do not use the switch, no cookie is set. The legal basis is § 25 (2) no. 2 TDDDG: storing it is strictly necessary to provide the setting you have expressly requested.

3. Audience measurement without cookies

To know whether and how our services are used, we count page views. Counting takes place on a server of our own at Monitor Versorgungsforschung; apart from us, only the upstream Cloudflare network is involved (section 4), which forwards the requests but does not analyse them. No cookies are set and no information is stored on or read from your device – consent under § 25 (1) TDDDG is therefore not required.

Only totals are stored: the page viewed, the domain of the referring page, the type of device (desktop or mobile), the screen width in broad steps and the hour of access. The screen width is deliberately recorded only as a step and not as the exact resolution – the latter would be one of the strongest features for recognising a browser. Your IP address is not stored. Together with the browser identifier and a secret random number, it enters into a non-reversible hash value that only allows us to count several views on the same day as one person. The random number is replaced by a new one every night and the old one discarded; after that, even we can no longer make any attribution. There is no recognition beyond the day, no combination with other data and no profiling.

The legal basis is our legitimate interest in designing our services according to demand (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR). Views from browsers sending Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control are not counted at all.

4. Hosting (GitHub Pages)

The pages are delivered via GitHub Pages (GitHub Inc., 88 Colin P. Kelly Jr. Street, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA). GitHub processes technically necessary access data, including IP address, time, requested file and browser type, in server log files for secure operation. The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR. Details in the GitHub Privacy Statement ↗. The transfer to the USA is based on the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

Server of Monitor Versorgungsforschung and Cloudflare

Everything our pages send to us goes to a server of Monitor Versorgungsforschung at monitor-versorgungsforschung.de: audience measurement (section 3), the search count and the newsletter sign-up (section 5), as well as the idea check, the order form, the guide and the access, additions and exchange for project leads (section 6). This server sits behind the Cloudflare network (Cloudflare, Inc., 101 Townsend St., San Francisco, CA 94107, USA). Cloudflare forwards the requests to our server and protects it against attacks and overload. In doing so, Cloudflare processes on our behalf the technically necessary connection data, in particular your IP address, and the content of the transmission. The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR; our legitimate interest is secure and available operation. Cloudflare is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework; the EU Standard Contractual Clauses apply in addition. Details in Cloudflare's privacy policy ↗.

5. Knowledge Hubs

The Knowledge Hubs are static information pages. Beyond the audience measurement under section 3, no personal data are collected or stored when you simply read them. Exceptions are the counting of searches, newsletter subscription and the button “Treffer direkt anzeigen” (show results directly).

Counting of searches

In addition, we count how often a hub's search is used – separately according to whether a term was typed, a quick-pick suggestion was clicked or the results list was requested via “Treffer direkt anzeigen”. This count is separate from the count of page views and does not change its figures.

The search term entered is stored only under narrow conditions, and separately from everything else: in a collection of its own that knows only the hub, the month and the term – no day, no time and no link to your visit. Attribution to a person is therefore impossible even for us. The sole purpose is to align the suggested search terms with what people actually search for. Terms naming a disease or diagnosis are not stored. Also discarded are entries with more than three words, with digits, punctuation or special characters, and search formulas. In these cases the search is counted as an event, but the term itself is not recorded.

Copying the term for portal tiles

If, after a search, you click a tile marked “Portal” or “Lizenz” (licence), the hub places your search term on your device's clipboard so that you can paste it there. Nothing is transmitted to us in the process.

Newsletter subscription

Which data. To order a newsletter we need your e-mail address. We do not ask for any further information. Which newsletters you selected is transmitted as well.

Confirmation procedure. After submitting, you receive an e-mail with a confirmation link; sending begins only once you click it (double opt-in). This prevents anyone from entering other people's addresses. Subscription and confirmation are logged with time and IP address so that we can prove your consent.

Legal basis. Newsletters are sent on the basis of your consent under Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR. Logging of the consent is based on Art. 6 (1) (c) GDPR in conjunction with the duty of proof under Art. 7 (1) GDPR.

Withdrawal. You can withdraw your consent at any time – most easily via the unsubscribe link at the end of every e-mail. The lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal remains unaffected. After withdrawal we remove your address from the mailing list; we keep the records of consent for as long as claims could be asserted against us.

Performance measurement. Our newsletters contain a tracking pixel and trackable links. These show whether an e-mail was opened and which links were clicked. We analyse this to tailor the newsletters better to our readers' interests; this, too, is based on your consent (Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR) and ends with its withdrawal.

Mailing service provider (Mailchimp). For subscription, management and sending we use Mailchimp, a service of The Rocket Science Group LLC, 405 N. Angier Ave. NE, Atlanta, GA 30308, USA (an Intuit Inc. company). Your data are stored there and processed on our behalf on the basis of a data processing agreement under Art. 28 GDPR. When you submit the subscription form, your entries first go to our own server at monitor-versorgungsforschung.de and from there to Mailchimp. Our server does not store your e-mail address; it passes it on immediately. To protect against automated mass sign-ups, it counts how many subscriptions come from one connection on one day – for this, your IP address enters, together with a random number that changes daily, into a non-reversible hash value; the IP address itself is not stored (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR). Processing at Mailchimp takes place in the USA. Mailchimp is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, for which the European Commission determined an adequate level of protection on 10 July 2023; in addition, Mailchimp has contractually committed to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

Results list across several databases

Upon your explicit click on “Treffer direkt anzeigen”, your browser calls the public programming interfaces of several scientific databases and compiles the references on the page. Currently these are PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov (both National Library of Medicine, USA), Europe PMC (EMBL-EBI, United Kingdom), OpenAlex (OurResearch, Canada), Crossref (United Kingdom/USA), DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals, Sweden) and Zenodo (CERN, Switzerland). Afterwards, Unpaywall (OurResearch, Canada) is consulted for the top results to see whether a freely accessible version exists; only the DOI of the respective work is transmitted.

The query is made directly from your device; no server of ours is involved, and none learns your search term or your results. The providers named receive your search term and technical connection data, in particular your IP address, and process them under their own terms, for which they are themselves responsible. Crossref, OpenAlex and Unpaywall additionally receive the editorial contact address (info@m-vf.de) – for these services this is the intended identification of non-commercial queries and concerns no data of yours. Without this click no such query takes place. The results exist only in your browser's memory and are gone when you close the page. The legal basis is the consent you give by clicking and our legitimate interest in providing this research service (Art. 6 (1) (a) and (f) GDPR).

External links

The hubs link to external databases, studies and institutions (e.g. PubMed, Cochrane, LIVIVO). By clicking, you leave our service; the providers called receive your IP address, the information which page you came from (referrer) and possibly further data, and process them under their own terms. For tiles with live search, your search term is part of the address called.

6. Innovationsfonds-Wissen

Innovationsfonds-Wissen consists of pre-built pages that already contain their data. When you read, search, filter or download images or tables, no data leave your device: all analyses run in the browser. What you search for or filter is neither transmitted nor counted. Exceptions are the idea check (Ideencheck), the order form, correction notices, questions to the guide (Wegweiser), and the access, additions and exchange for project leads – that is, information you send yourself.

Guide (Wegweiser)

Frequent questions. The guide answers frequent questions with fixed texts taken from the portal. Your question does not leave your device.

Other questions. For all other questions, the guide selects matching passages from the portal in your browser and sends your question together with these passages to a server of Monitor Versorgungsforschung at monitor-versorgungsforschung.de (behind Cloudflare, section 4). From there, question and passages go to the language model Claude of Anthropic PBC (USA), which phrases the answer from them. Only the text is transmitted to Anthropic, not your IP address and no information about your device. Anthropic processes the text on our behalf solely to generate the answer. We store neither your question nor the answer. Please do not enter any information about yourself or your health into the guide. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in making the portal's content findable for freely worded questions (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR). The transfer to the USA is based on the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

Counting without the question text. After each answer, the guide sends a count signal to the same server. It contains only three items: which area of the portal the question belongs to (for example projects, evidence or terms), how it was answered (fixed answer, Claude or passages) and whether the portal found anything on it. Your browser determines the area. Your question, your IP address and identifiers of your device are not stored for this, the server keeps daily totals only. If you click “Did this help?” below an answer, only the area of the question and your yes or no are sent the same way, again as daily totals only. We use them to see which areas are in demand and where the portal lacks content (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR).

Protection against misuse. Every answer costs us money. The server therefore counts how many questions come from one connection per hour and per day. For this, your IP address is combined with a random number that changes daily into a hash value that cannot be reversed; the IP address itself is not stored, and the count is deleted the following day (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR).

Idea check

The check itself. The idea check compares your project description with the collection entirely in your browser. The description is not transmitted.

Anonymous count. After each check, the page reports only the result of the calculation to a server of Monitor Versorgungsforschung: the best-matching topic area, up to three building blocks and the funding area – never your input. This tells us which topics are in demand. Attribution to a person is not possible. The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR.

Sending us an idea. If you expressly send us your idea – in a box of its own, with its own tick box and its own click – your description, your e-mail address and, voluntarily, your name and institution go to this server. We store the submission there and send one e-mail each to the editorial team and to you. We use your information only to reply to you. The legal basis is your consent (Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR); you can withdraw it at any time – an informal message to info@m-vf.de is sufficient, and we will then delete the submission. To protect against misuse, the server counts how many submissions come from one connection on one day; for this, your IP address enters, together with a random number that changes daily, into a non-reversible hash value; the IP address itself is not stored.

Ordering an evidence synthesis

Which data. Institution, contact person, address and e-mail address; voluntarily department, telephone, VAT identification number, order number and a remark. In addition, the service chosen.

Where to. The information goes to a server of Monitor Versorgungsforschung at monitor-versorgungsforschung.de; apart from us, only the upstream Cloudflare network is involved (section 4). From there, you and our accounts department each receive an e-mail.

Purpose and legal basis. Performance of the contract and invoicing (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR). Retention of invoicing records follows the periods under commercial and tax law (Art. 6 (1) (c) GDPR).

Protection against mass orders. The server counts how many orders arrive from one connection on one day. For this, your IP address enters, together with a random number that changes daily, into a non-reversible hash value; the IP address itself is not stored. The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR.

Correction notices

The link “Angabe korrigieren” (correct entry) opens your e-mail program with a prepared message to info@m-vf.de. Nothing is sent until you trigger it yourself. We then process your information to check and correct the entry (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR).

Contact details in project entries

For the funded projects, the G-BA project database names contact persons. Innovationsfonds-Wissen does not take over these contact details but links to the G-BA's page. Names of project leads appear only if they add information themselves or consent to being shown as a contact person (see the following section); we never show e-mail addresses. If, as a person involved in a project, you would like an entry corrected or removed, an informal message to info@m-vf.de is sufficient.

Access, additions and exchange for project leads

Requesting access. On the pages of the individual projects under innofonds.m-vf.de/projekt/, project leads can request access. For this, we process the e-mail address entered: we compare it with the addresses published for the project by the G-BA or known to us and, if they match, send a personal link; otherwise the editorial team checks the request by hand. The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR; our legitimate interest is to accept additions only from project leads.

Additions. Via the personal link, project leads can add publications, contracts and continuations as well as links. We publish this information with name, role and date on the project's page, marked as not editorially reviewed (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR). For a DOI given, we retrieve title and source from Crossref; this request is made from our computer, not from your browser, and contains only the DOI.

Available for exchange. Anyone who expressly consents (a tick box of its own) is shown as a contact person with name, role, institution and topics, never with the e-mail address. The legal basis is consent (Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR). You can withdraw it at any time by removing the tick on the additions page or by writing to info@m-vf.de.

Contact form. Messages sent via a contact person's contact form reach us with the sender's name and e-mail address. We forward them by e-mail to the contact person, who then replies directly (Art. 6 (1) (a) and (f) GDPR). For this forwarding we use our e-mail mailbox at Microsoft 365; Microsoft processes the message on our behalf.

Where to and how long. All entries go to a server of Monitor Versorgungsforschung at monitor-versorgungsforschung.de; apart from us, only the upstream Cloudflare network is involved (section 4). They are collected from there twice a day and then deleted. We keep access and contact requests until they are dealt with, for at most twelve months; additions for as long as the project is listed in the portal or until you object.

Map

The outlines of the federal states and the map program are contained in the page. No map tiles or program code from third-party providers are loaded, so your IP address is not transmitted to anyone in the process.

External links

Innovationsfonds-Wissen links to the project and resolution pages of the Federal Joint Committee and to the documents published there. By clicking, you leave our service; the provider called receives your IP address and the information which page you came from, and processes them under its own terms.

7. Funding radar (Ausschreibungsradar)

The funding radar is a static page. Sections 2 to 4 apply to it; there is no form there.

External links. Each call links to the announcement at its source (such as the Federal Government's funding portal, the German Research Foundation or grants.gov). By clicking, you leave our service; the provider called receives your IP address and the information which page you came from.

Links to monitor-versorgungsforschung.de. Links to our own website carry an addition to the address (so-called utm parameters) that only states which of our pages the visit comes from. It contains no information about you. The website monitor-versorgungsforschung.de has its own privacy notice.

8. CuratioHub

The CuratioHub is a static page. Sections 2 to 4 apply to it. Your search term is not transmitted to us: it stays in your browser until you click a tile and then goes exclusively to the job board you open.

Links to third-party job boards. The tiles lead to job boards of third parties. As soon as you click a tile, you leave our service; from then on only the privacy notice of the respective provider applies, and your search term becomes part of the address called there. Some of these providers are based outside the EU (among others in the USA and the United Kingdom) and set their own cookies. We have no influence on their processing and accept no liability for the job advertisements shown there.

9. Your rights

You have the right of access (Art. 15), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20) and objection (Art. 21 GDPR), as well as the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR). The competent authority is the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information of North Rhine-Westphalia (LDI NRW) ↗.

10. Last updated

Last updated: October 2026.