Ethics vote for DFG proposals

General procedure

For many research projects for which funding is to be applied for from the German Research Foundation (DFG), the DFG sometimes requires an ethics vote at the application stage. Often, however, not all documents are available at this stage of the project that would allow an insight into the relevant research practices that are usually examined by the KIT Ethics Committee (e.g. precise planning of the experimental setup, exact description of the participants, etc.). In these cases, it is possible for the ethics committee to issue a vote with the condition that the project be resubmitted at a later date (after approval and development of the experimental phase).

The procedure is similar to the submission of a "normal" ethics application (see Application process):

  1. Decide which form of application you would like to submit.
  2. Check whether data protection regulations must be observed in your research project. If you are not yet able to provide details on the exact handling of personal data, please note this in the application form (e.g. as a comment) and inform us when submitting the application. In this case, a review by the DPO is initially (!) not necessary.
  3. Complete the application form in full (do not forget to sign it!).
  4. Send the completed form in PDF format to the e-mail address kommission∂ethik.kit.edu.
  5. You will receive an application number and confirmation of the session in which your research project will be reviewed.
  6. You will usually receive the ethics vote by e-mail approximately one week after the meeting date.
Important notes

Please note the following formalities:

  1. In field 1.A, the person submitting the proposal to the DFG must be specified as the project leader, as the letter from the Ethics Committee will be issued to this person.
  2. In field 2.A, the title of the DFG proposal must be entered as the study title. If necessary, ignore the note that you should enter a maximum of 10 words!
  3. The DFG only accepts statements from ethics committees that are not older than two years.
Further steps after funding approval

Once funding has been approved by the DFG, you should concretize your project planning. As soon as you have completed the project planning to the extent that you will be able to start collecting data in the foreseeable future, resubmit the project - ideally as an change to the research project. .