On 1st June 2019, Dr. Simisola Akintoye became the new interim Human Brain Project’s (HBP) Data Protection Officer (DPO). She replaces the previous HBP DPO Kevin McGillivray who has left the HBP to take up a new job. It is expected that Simisola Akintoye will be an interim DPO pending the appointment of a new DPO in October 2019.
Recommendation to appoint HBP DPO was suggested by the HBP Ethics and Society Subproject in its Opinion and Action Plan on Data Protection and Privacy in 2017. The DPO is a professional in the field of data protection and works with HBP partners to facilitate compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The role of DPO includes consultation on data processing activities and providing advice and recommendations on compliance with applicable laws. In particular, the DPO assists in carrying out data protection impact assessments (DPIA), among other compliance tasks. The DPO is also a part of the HBP’s Data Governance Working Group.
Dr. Simisola Akintoye joined the HBP Ethics Support team in 2017 as an expert on data protection. She is a VC2020 Lecturer in Law at De Montfort University (Leicester, UK) Institute of Evidence-based Law Reform (Cluster for Privacy, Ethics and Responsibility). She researches in the field of corporate governance (with particular interest in fraud regulation), corporate social responsibility (focusing on emerging and developed economies) and Information Technology law (with special interest in data protection and ethical responsibility). She is a qualified Data Protection Practitioner.
Simisola Akintoye is a co-author of a recent Ethics Support team’s paper ‘Beyond Research Ethics: Dialogues in Neuro-ICT Research’. She has contributed to the HBP Education activities such as the workshop on ‘Dual Use and Responsible Research’ in Stockholm (November 2018). You can read more about her expertise in the field of data protection in her recent blog post ‘International Data Transfers in the Human Brain Project’ which is based on the talk she gave at the HBP 2018 Summit in Maastricht.