Managing Ethical Issues. “The best defence against an ethical problem is a good offence”. Ethics will be on the agenda at consortium meetings to ensure an on-going discussion about ethical issues throughout the project and facilitating reporting of ethical matters. From the initiation of SPLENDID, every aspect of the project has been evaluated from an ethical viewpoint, recognising the importance ethics in the scheduled testing, especially in sensitive populations like students. Prior to each research trial the responsible researcher at the study site will send the study protocol, together with the informed consent form to the Ethics Advisor for a final quality check against the guidelines outlined in this document. The Ethical Advisor will study the protocol in detail and will provide feedback and instructions for adjustments (if necessary). Furthermore, if needs arises, the Ethics advisor is responsible for initiating contact with the Ethics Review Help Desk of the European Union Commission [43]. The Help Desk provides information, expert advice and guideline on ethics to all FP7 project participants. This service will provide additional expert advice and guidance, should ethical issues arise in the course of the project.
Managing Ethical Issues. “The best defence against an ethical problem is a good offence”. Ethics will be on the agenda at consortium meetings to ensure an on-going discussion about ethical issues throughout the project and facilitating reporting of ethical matters. From the initiation of SPLENDID, every aspect of the project has been evaluated from an ethical viewpoint, recognising the importance ethics in the scheduled testing, especially in sensitive populations like students. Prior to each research trial the responsible researcher at the study site will send the study protocol, together with the informed consent form to the Ethics Advisor for a final quality check against the guidelines outlined in this document. The Ethical Advisor will study the protocol in detail and will provide feedback and instructions for adjustments (if necessary). Furthermore, if needs arises, the Ethics advisor is responsible for initiating contact with the Ethics Review Help Desk of the European Union Commission [47] and the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) [11]. The Help Desk will provide information, expert advice and guidance on ethics should ethical issues arise in the course of the project. Finally, the EDPS provides more general advice on the policies and legislation that affect privacy of personal data and will be contacted if the need arises.
