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The Ethics Committee acts at the request of researchers or the Dean's Office.
Requests for the review of one’s own research project, usually in connection with a planned academic publication or a research grant application, may be submitted by:
- by researchers at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences and
- by students at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, limited to Master's theses where publication is intended. Bachelor’s theses and project work are not assessed by the Committee. An exception may be requested with justification. In all cases, the Supervisor at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences must provide a justification as to why a decision by the Committee is required. The application must then be submitted jointly by the student and the Supervisor.
Applications must be submitted before the start of the research project. Applications submitted after the fact will not be assessed.
Conditions under which an ethics review is required
An ethics review is required if:
- People are directly involved, e.g. through
- interviews, surveys or experiments involving participants.
- Observations in sensitive contexts (e.g. hospitals, psychiatric wards, prisons)
- Research involving particularly vulnerable groups (children, older people, patients, refugees, etc.)
- There is a potential for psychological or physical distress to participants:
- e.g. in the case of sensitive topics such as violence, sexuality, addiction, trauma
- Medical or psychological interventions take place
- e.g. administration of medication, diagnostics, tests with physical effects. Research projects involving this type of intervention are not assessed by the Ethics Committee for Non-Invasive Research.
- Deception or limited disclosure (in experiments) is planned
- e.g. if participants are not fully informed (including in planned debriefings)
- Personal or sensitive data is collected and processed, particularly where
- full anonymisation is not possible.
- Audio, image or video recordings are made
