Ethics Committee

for non-invasive research on humans in the Faculty of Society and Economics at the Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences

The ethics Committee acts at the request of the scientist or the dean's office.

Applications for the assessment of your own research project, usually in connection with a planned scientific publication or a research proposal, can be submitted:

by scientists from the Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences and
by students at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, limited to master's theses that are intended for publication. Bachelor's theses and project theses are not assessed by the commission. An exception may be requested if justified. In any case, the supervising researcher at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences must provide a justification as to why a vote by the commission is necessary. The application must then be submitted jointly by the student and the supervisor.

Applications must be submitted before the start of the research project. Ex post applications will not be considered.

An ethics review is required if:

1. people are directly involved, e.g. through:

Interviews, surveys or experiments with participants.
Observations in sensitive contexts (e.g. clinics, psychiatric wards, prisons).
Research with particularly vulnerable groups (children, elderly people, sick people, refugees, etc.).

2. psychological or physical stress for participants is possible:

e.g. with sensitive topics such as violence, sexuality, addiction, trauma.

3. medical or psychological interventions take place:

e.g. administration of medication, diagnostics, tests with effects on the body. Research projects involving this type of intervention are not evaluated by ethics committees for non-invasive research.

4. deception or limited information (in experiments) is provided: