Free Content
Ethics Committee of the University of Basel
Purpose
The University Ethics Committee (UEK) is a permanent committee of the Senate mandated to ensure the optimal respect of the principles of research ethics at the University of Basel. The UEK is independent of directives. It is committed to comply with the regulations as well as the standards of good scientific practice in the fields concerned.
Tasks and areas of competence
The UEK advises the Rectorate on ethical matters on request and represents the University to the public on ethical issues. In addition, the UEK reviews on request the ethical acceptability of research projects at the University of Basel.
The UEK reviews on researchers' request the ethical conformity of research projects that do not fall under the Human Research Act (HRA), such as:
-
Surveys, interviews, focus groups with minors, vulnerable or persons incapable of judgement
-
Processing of non-anonymized personal data
-
Research in social networks
-
Observational research
-
Research with potential harm or risks for the participants or third parties
-
Research that could give rise to technologies or know-how that could be used for military purposes or misused for terrorist purposes (Dual Use Research)
Retrospective Reviews
The UEK does not issue retrospective ethical reviews, i.e. after data collection has already started, but the UEK can give on researchers' request an advisory opinion.
General Manager: Dr. Isabelle Wienand
Meeting Dates 2023
Content-Table
16.01.2023
Content-Table
24.04.2023
Content-Table
19.06.2023
Content-Table
25.09.2023
Content-Table
27.11.2023
UEK Regulations and Guidelines
Ethics Self-Assessment and Ethics Application to the UEK
Is your research project ethically sensitive and should it be approved by the UEK? Find out by filling in the Ethics Self-Assessment Tool! If you need approval from the UEK, please send your completed application form (see Downloads below) to uek@unibas.ch at least six weeks before the respective meeting (see Meeting Dates above). The entire approval procedure takes approximately 7-8 weeks - if there are no major questions and comments.
As guidance for your ethics application, you can consult the following exemplar:
Downloads
- UEK Ethics Application Form Exemplar I (PDF, 215 KB)
- UEK Ethics Application Annex Exemplar I_German (PDF, 448 KB)
- UEK_Ethics Application Form_Exemplar II-English (PDF, 328 KB)
- UEK Ethics Application Annex Exemplar II English (PDF, 119 KB)
- UEK Ethics Application_Annex_Exemplar II_English (PDF, 119 KB)
Links & Downloads
- Members of the Ethics Committee
- Ethics at the University of Basel – Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Psychology
- Clinical Ethics at the University Hospital Basel (German)
- Gesetz über die Information und den Datenschutz (IDG) des Kantons Basel-Stadt
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union
- Federal Act on Research involving Human Beings / Human Research Act (HRA)
- Ethikkommission Nordwest- und Zentralschweiz (EKNZ)
- Swissethics - Swiss Association of Research Ethics Committees
- SAMS Central Ethics Commission for Research (German)
- Federal law on genetic testing in humans (German)
- SAMS Research with Humans : Practical Guidelines (German)