Notice

When you consult the pages of the site www.volterys.org or use the services as a volunteer or a researcher, you agree to be bound by the conditions of use stated in the existing document. Since these may be modified at anytime, we advise you to refer there regularly. Any advice and any information, whether oral or written, obtained by you from Volterys or at the time of consulting its site or using its services, are not subject to creating guarantees not expressly foreseen by the existing agreement.

As at the time of any communication or contact via the Internet, the basic rules of caution are imposed. Volterys is not a site for meeting privately, nor an instrument intended for commercial measures. Any use for other ends than those explicitly foreseen in this document will be prosecuted before the competent courts of law. We ask that you share with us immediately any abusive usage that you suspect or of which you would have knowledge (contact).

Our Service

The activity deployed through our site is to put researchers and volunteers in touch with each other, on an agreed and enlightened basis, with the aim of carrying out tests, experiments or trials where the human individual plays a role. These studies aim to further science and medicine and develop new medications or new techniques.

Our objective is then to support the research studies. Our catch phrase is « No Need to be a Researcher to Further Medicine ! ».

Our audience is divided into two groups : one portion is the volunteers who enroll freely and the other portion is the researchers who query the database and publish the offers of studies. Volterys does not organize, does not carry out, and does not participate in any experiment, but plays strictly the role of intermediary between the volunteers and the researchers.

Definitions

The terms defined below will be used in the rest of the document.

• Anonymity : the contact information of the researchers and volunteers is not accessible.
• Partial anonymity : the complete contact information of the researcher is disclosed. The first name, the assumed name, the postal code, the country, the e-mail address and the telephone number of contact of the volunteer are imparted.
• Exchange of contact information : When the volunteer and the researcher have both marked their agreement for inclusion in the recruitment process of the study, the system sends both parties their mutual contact information.
• Agreement of the researcher : the step by which the researcher accepts the exchange of contact information with a volunteer as part of a given offer.
• Agreement of the volunteer : the step by which the volunteer accepts the exchange of contact information with a researcher as part of a given offer.
• Public offer : offer posted via the personal space of the researcher and visible to all the volunteers.
• Private offer : offer posted via the personal space of the researcher and visible only to the volunteers that this researcher contacted anonymously after querying the database.
• Category of researcher : one of the following categories to which the researcher belongs : PhD student/university, pharmaceutical/medical industry, CRO, cosmetics industry.
• Credits of the researcher : prepaid points entitling the exchange of contact information.
• Purchase of credits : increase in the number of credits of the researcher by electronic payment or bank transfer.
• Debit of credits : decrease in the number of credits of the researcher brought about by an exchange of contact information. The number of credits debited per unit of service depends upon the category of the researcher.

Performance of Our Services to Volunteers

The volunteers can enroll in our database in order to be consulted and receive and be able to accept offers of studies. Enrollment is free and semi-anonymous. It is done with the strictest respect for your private life.

Once your user account is created, you can access your personal space. At the time of your first visit, we will ask you to fill out a questionnaire of a general and medical nature. You may consult afterwards and respond to public offers posted by the researchers, read or write internal messages, and accept or refuse offers of studies. Your contact information (first name, assumed name, postal code, country, e-mail address, and telephone number of contact) will be furnished only to the researcher when you and he have marked your agreement as part of a given study.

Performance of Our Services to Researchers

In order to use the services of Volterys, the researchers must register via the form requesting access. At the time of their first visit, they must present their contact information in their user profile. They must as well select the category of researcher to which they belong. Before being able to publish offers and recruit volunteers, we ask researchers to confirm their identity by sending by electronic mail ( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ) or by fax (+32.2.706.57.91) a copy (recto) of their identity card and proof of their membership in a research group (card of staff membership or attestation from the head of the department). Once their registration is approved, the researchers may access their personal space by using their assumed name and their password.

In order to recruit volunteers, the researchers may post public offers and private offers and query the database. Never mention in your public or private offers confidential information concerning you research work. The costs of intermediation are paid by the researchers at the time of each exchange of contact information, by means of prepaid credits that they may charge by credit card via the portfolio online Paypal or by bank transfer.

Querying the Database

The researchers may query the database of anonymous volunteers, following the basic criteria (age, sex, illness, …) or advanced (old smoker, …). The profiles of volunteers who correspond with the criteria are displayed anonymously. In order to be able to contact the volunteers whose profiles appear to fit, the researcher must first have posted an offer. The researcher may offer to the volunteers selected to take part in his study by clicking on the ad hoc link. This step marks the agreement of the researcher for the exchange of contact information. An anonymous message is sent to the volunteer by e-mail, offering him to take part in the recruitment process of the study. If the researcher does not wish to hire him immediately, he may present an anonymous question to the volunteer, via the internal messaging system. In order to accept an offer, the volunteers must mark their agreement by clicking on the ad hoc button on their page of decisions in progress. When the agreement of the researcher and the agreement of the volunteer have both been obtained, the exchange of contact information takes place. This step leads to the debit of credits on the account of the researcher.

Submission of Public Offers

Contrary to private offers, public offers may be consulted by all volunteers registered in the database. These volunteers may offer their participation in a study by clicking on the ad hoc link. This step marks the agreement of the volunteer for the exchange of contact information. An anonymous message is sent to the researcher by e-mail, offering him to include the volunteer interested in the recruitment process of the study. If the volunteer does not wish to be hired immediately, he may present an anonymous question to the researcher, via the internal messaging system. In order to accept the inclusion of a volunteer, the researcher must mark his agreement by clicking on the ad hoc button on his page of decisions in progress. When the agreement of the researcher and the agreement of the volunteer have both been obtained, the exchange of contact information takes place. This step leads to the debit of credits on the account of the researcher.

The relationship which is tied after the exchange of contact information and its possible consequences come under the sole responsibility of the volunteer and the researcher. In accepting the exchange of contact information, the volunteer does not mark his enlightened consent. This must be asked explicitly of the volunteer by the researcher at the time of the recruitment process in the study.

The researcher commits himself to keep the data furnished during an exchange of contact information strictly confidential. Their use is limited to contact of the volunteer as part of the study which generated the exchange of contact information. By no means, can the researcher circulate, sell, or publish this information. The building of a parallel database on the basis of information furnished by Volterys is strictly prohibited.

Guarantee and Responsibility

Our role is essentially intermediation. Our service depends upon the information posted by the volunteers and by the researchers. This information is not monitorable for reasons of confidentiality or for practical reasons.

THIS MEANS THAT WE DO NOT ASSUME ANY RESPONSIBILITY, AND THAT WE DO NOT OFFER ANY GUARANTEE EXPRESSED OR IMPLICIT CONCERNING, WITHOUT THIS ENUMERATION BEING LIMITING :

• THE ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION OFFERED ON THIS SITE
• THE NON-VIOLATION OF THE RULES OF USE OF THE SERVICE BY ITS USERS
• ANY DAMAGE SUFFERED BY YOUR COMPUTER OR ANY LOSS OF SEQUENTIAL DATA IN THE UTILIZATION OF OUR SITE.

FOR THE VOLUNTEERS :

• THE EFFECTIVE ACCOMPLISHMENT, USE OR PUBLICATION OF THE EXPERIMENTS CONCERNED,
• THE QUALITY OF THE EXPERIMENTS,
• THE INNOCUOUSNESS OF THE EXPERIMENTS,
• THE RELEVANCE AND THE SCIENTIFIC OUTCOME OF THE EXPERIMENTS,
• THE REMUNERATION OF THE VOLUNTEERS BY THE LABORATORY,
• THE CHOICE OF THE VOLUNTEER CANDIDATE BY THE LABORATORY,
• THE ACCURACY OF THE POINTS OF THE PUBLISHED STUDIES.

FOR THE LABORATORIES :

• THE POSSIBILITY OF FINDING VOLUNTEERS IN THE DESIRED NUMBER AND QUALITY,
• THE ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION FURNISHED BY THE VOLUNTEERS,
• THE RELEVANCE OF THE SELECTION OF THE VOLUNTEERS
• THE APTITUDE OF THE VOLUNTEERS IN THE EXPERIMENT,
• THE WILL OF THE VOLUNTEERS TO TAKE PART IN THE EXPERIMENT.

These factors come under the sole responsibility of the individuals publishing and carrying out the experiments, and those individuals accepting to take part in these experiments. This condition is essential in our relationship with the individuals using our site.

Remuneration

It happens that the participation in the studies or experiments is the object of expenses or remuneration. We do not remunerate the volunteer candidates and, if these candidates receive a remuneration from the laboratories, it is owing to a direct relationship between them, of which we are totally outside. In a general way, the legal relationship which is tied between the volunteer and the researcher is the sole responsibility of these parties. This relationship constitutes a connection of which Volterys is outside. This connection can generate towards Volterys neither duty nor obligation.

Ethics Committee

The experiments must in principle be the object of an opinion of the Ethics Committee (at the national level or within the institution concerned). Always take care to assure yourself beforehand that the experiment honors the obligation of submission to an ethics committee. The regularity of the studies or experiment comes under the sole responsibility of the laboratories concerned. Volterys is not able to verify the conditions and the conformity of each study even if it is published on its valves. Volterys therefore does not assume any responsibility in this regard.

Legal Information

This site is protected by :

• The law of June 30, 1994 relating to the right of the author and similar rights,
• The law transposing the European directive of May 14, 1991 concerning the juridicial protection of computer programs,
• The international conventions in terms of the right of the author,
• The law of August 31, 1998 transposing in Belgian right the European directive of March 11, 1996 concerning the juridicial protection of databases,
• The rules in terms of domain name.

The holder of all author rights on the site, its components and its accessories is Dr. Laurent Hermoye. He is owner of rights on the contents, the databases, the graphics, the domain name, certain logical elements motorizing the site and the hypertext language carrying out the content. The overseer of the handling of the databases and the editor responsible for the editorial content is Dr. Laurent Hermoye, established at Rue Maurice Lietart 60 at 1150 Brussels. Any reproduction of the site, even partial, is forbidden without our written authorization. We encourage the display of a link to our site on the condition that the site establishing the link is of scientific content or general information of quality and abstains from creating confusion by resorting to framing.

Applicable Right and Jurisdiction

In case of conflict between us and the users or visitors of the site, whatever the origin, cause or nature of the difference, the court of first authority of Brussels will only be qualified, applying the Belgian right even if there are elements of extraneity or in the event of appeal in guarantee.