Ethics and Research

The Ethics Committee

The mission of the FPPW Ethics Committee is to advise researchers on ethical issues and review research applications. The mission statement of the Ethics Committee is described in the General Ethics Protocol (GEP).

To do justice to diverse traditions of research, the FPPW Ethics Committee is composed of members from all departments. The chair is prof. dr. Thierry Marchant and the secretary is prof. dr. Melissa Tuytens.

• Mission statement EC
• Composition EC

Before starting

• Go through the General Ethics Protocol (AEP) thoroughly.
• Check whether ethical approval is necessary. A list of situations where it is necessary to seek approval from the FPPW Ethics Committee can be found in the General Ethics Protocol.
• In some cases, it is necessary to apply to another committee (e.g. the Medical Ethics Committee). More information on this can be found in the introduction to the General Ethics Protocol.
• Please note that only files of approved projects are assessed. Applications relating to projects that have not yet been submitted or are awaiting approval (e.g. by the FWO) will not be assessed by the ethics committee.
• Preferably submit a full English dossier (i.e. those documents that are not used for communication with the participants, such as the SEP, DMP and GDPR-record), but a Dutch dossier can of course also be submitted.
• For applications relating to master's theses, the supervisor is the contact person. This means that all communication always goes through the supervisor (incl. submitting the application).

The review of applications by Ethics Committee members is a form of service. Please keep this in mind during your interactions with the Ethics Committee.

Submitting an application

• Complete the Specific Ethics Protocol (SEP).
• Complete the dossier with all the documents required. See the checklist in the SEP.
• Forward the complete file to ec.pp@UGent.be.

What is the procedure for applications?