Advisory Board for Ethical Issues in Scientific Research

Researchers at the University of Innsbruck have the opportunity to contact the Vice-Rectorate for Research concerning ethical questions in their research projects or dissertations .

The Vice-Rectorate then passes on the concerns and questions raised to the Advisory Board and issues a corresponding confirmation of the admissibility of the requested research projects at the University of Innsbruck regarding ethical principles according to the rules of good scientific practice. This confirmation can then be submitted, for example, to funding institutions that require such confirmation.

Typically, this procedure applies to research projects in sports science, psychology or experimental economics in which studies are carried out with people.

Applications are assessed by the subject-specific review boards. Applications that do not meet the expertise of the review boards are assessed directly by the Advisory Board. There are four review boards:

• Review Board Psychology
• Review Board Teacher Education
• Review Board Sports Science
• Review Board Social and Economic Sciences

The Advisory Board is not an ethics committee according to the UG 2022

In the legal sense, the Advisory Board is not to be equated with the ethics committees set up at medical universities, which must fulfil the requirements of the Hospitals Act. The assessment of clinical trials of medicinal products and medical devices, the assessment of the application of new medical methods and applied medical research on humans is therefore the responsibility of the ethics committee of the medical university, as provided for in Universities Act 2002 (§ 30).

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