Who are we?
http://crossdro.maynoothuniversity.ie represents a research study co-funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union and the Irish Environmental Protection Agency. The study is concerned with understanding drought impacts and informing planning in the Boyne catchment, Ireland.
What personal data will be collected?
We will collect the names and contact details of our survey respondents.
All responses shared with us will be anonymised before being shared publicly. Your participation in this research is purely voluntary and you are free to withdraw from participation at anytime up to time of publication and can request a copy of your data.
If during your participation in this study you feel the information and guidelines that you were given have been neglected or disregarded in any way, or if you are unhappy about the process, please contact the Secretary of the Maynooth University Ethics Committee at research.ethics@mu.ie or +353 (0)1 708 6019. Please be assured that your concerns will be dealt with in a sensitive manner.
Will your participation in the study be kept confidential?
Yes, all information that is collected about you will be kept confidential. No names will be identified at any time unless you give explicit consent to allow this. All hard copy information will be held in a locked cabinet at the researchers’ place of work, electronic information will be encrypted and held securely on MU PC or servers and will be accessed only by Dr Sam Grainger and Dr Conor Murphy. No information will be distributed to any other unauthorised individual or third party. If you so wish, the data that you provide can also be made available to you at your own discretion. It must be recognised that, in some circumstances, confidentiality of research data and records may be overridden by courts in the event of litigation or in the course of investigation by lawful authority. In such circumstances the University will take all reasonable steps within law to ensure that confidentiality is maintained to the greatest possible extent.
What will happen to the information which you give?
All the information you provide will be kept at Maynooth University in such a way that it will not be possible to identify you. On completion of the research, the data will be retained on the MU server. After ten years, all data will be destroyed. Manual data will be shredded confidentially and electronic data will be reformatted or overwritten by Dr Conor Murphy.
What will happen to the results?
The research will be written up and presented as a summary report, discussed at internal group meetings, presented at National and International conferences and may be published in scientific journals. A copy of the research findings will be made available to you upon request.
What are the possible disadvantages of taking part?
The nature of questioning is not personal or confidential. Therefore, I do not envisage any negative consequences for you in taking part, although it is possible that talking about your experience of drought impacts may cause some distress.