Research projects are increasingly subject to requirements for ethical approval by the university. This requirement stems mainly from the EU’s framework programmes and international journals, and relates specifically to projects that collect empirical data and are not covered by the Committees Act on regional scientific ethical committees, which only applies to research projects in the field of health sciences.
Aarhus University (AU) projects are approved by the Research Ethics Committee. The Committee’s responsibility is to ensure a consistent and responsible framework for project approval and make it easier for AU researchers to obtain grants and publish.
The Committee acts as an Institutional Review Board (IRB) in cases where researchers are required to demonstrate that the university has approved the ethical aspects of your research.
Description of purpose and risks: The purpose declaration must demonstrate that the benefit of the project is balanced against the human resources involved in the project and the risks/inconveniences that they may be exposed to in connection with recruitment, study and reporting. The declaration must also demonstrate that the social group represented by the study participants will benefit from the outcome of the project.
Informed consent: The study subjects’ participation in research projects must take place on the background of informed consent. The informed consent should include the following information:
Methods for the anonymisation of data and publication of results must be outlined in the project description.
Fill out the information form with all appendices (in PDF format). Find the form here.
If you have any questions regarding the form, please send an email to legal@au.dk.
Please fill out this protocol template. The protocol is compulsory and must be max. 5 pages.
Submit the appendices relevant to your project. Aside from the protocol, this may include:
Participant information, any questionnaires and a declaration of consent must be drawn up in a language in which the participants have in-depth knowledge, usually their native language or English.