Before any research involving participants, such as questionnaires, interviews, experiments or observations, or personal data commences, approval of the Ethics Committee must be obtained.
A growing number of academic journals as well as Dutch and European funding bodies now require the formal approval of an Ethics Committee before an article can be published or a subsidy granted.
Applying for an Ethics review
Anybody with an UvAnetID can apply for approval.
However in case of Bachelor and Master student research only staff members can submit an application. But Bachelor and Master students may assist their supervisor with preparing the application as a collaborator. The responsible supervisor, not the student, should supervise and submit the application.
To better assist the researchers the UvA has developed a new portal that combines the Ethics Review, the Privacy Protection Review and the Data Management Plan. All these procedures can now be seen to in one place. As of January 1st 2023 the Faculty of Humanities switched to this new Research Management Services (RMS) Portal.
Login with your UvAnetID and create a new project. Note that to gain access to the RMS-portal, you need to have activated the 2-factor-authentication for your UvAnetID. Fill out both the Ethics Review and the Privacy Protection Review and submit these alongside the information brochure and informed consent form. Please note that both standard forms have to be adjusted to your project’s needs. Make sure that the information brochure and the consent form are consistent in their content.
Applications started before January 1st 2023 can still be finalized through the Ethics Data Management Review Portal.
Download standard forms for the Information brochure and Informed consent form here:
Download guidelines / procedures here:
Ethics and GDPR instructions (Dutch)
Ethics and GDPR instructions (English)
BA umbrella application procedure incl. Ethics and GDPR instructions here (Dutch)
BA umbrella application procedure (English)
Guidelines for online research
The guidelines will be kept up to date and may change as the situation changes. Be sure to check for the latest version!
Review procedure
Standard projects will be assigned to one member of the Ethics Committee and are evaluated throughout the year as they come in. A project is considered standard if:
- Participants are 16 years or older;
- Participants are legally competent;
- Participants do not belong to a vulnerable group;
- There is no risk of chance findings;
- There is no deception;
- There is no possibility of discomfort;
- There is no possibility of harmful or disadvantageous effects;
- Standard methods (for your field of research) are used;
- No special personal data are being processed. (Special personal data are: religion or belief, race / ethnic background, political preference, health, sexual orientation, biometric data, genetic data, trade union membership, criminal history)
Non-standard projects are discussed in one of the plenary meetings of the Ethics Committee and need to be submitted according to the deadlines below.
The Ethics Committee will convene on:
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6 October 2023 (deadline for non-standard projects 28 September 2023)
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1 December 2023 (deadline for non-standard projects 23 November 2023)
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26 January 2024 (deadline for non-standard projects 18 January 2024)
Committee members
The Ethics Committee consists of a chairperson, a professor of Ethics from the Philosophy Department and various members with specific areas of expertise covering all involved disciplines. The committee secretary is provided by the Faculty Office’s Research Department.
Contact
Ethics Committee secretary - commissie-ethiek-fgw@uva.nl | T: 020 525 3054 | Binnengasthuisstraat 9 | 1012 ZA Amsterdam | kamer 2.03