Faculty of Engineering & Natural Sciences:

• Main member: Univ. Prof. DI Dr. Rene MAYRHOFER (Chair)
• Substitute member: Univ. Prof. Dr. Christina OLAVERRI-MONREAL

Faculty of Social Sciences, Economics & Business:

• Main member: Univ. Prof. Dr. Claudio BISCARO
• Substitute member: Univ. Prof. Dr. Bernad BATINIC

Faculty of Law:

• Main member: Univ. Prof. Dr. Elisabeth GREIF (deputy chair)
• Substitute member: Dr. Karin NEUWIRTH

Faculty of Medicine:

• Main member: Univ. Prof. Dr. Soyoung LEE
• Substitute member: Univ. Prof. Dr. Erika ZELKO

Interdisciplinary:

• a.Univ. Prof. Dr. Klaus MIESENBERGER

The Ethics Advisory Board prepares reports in its area of ​​responsibility regarding the ethical safety of planned research and publication activities and can submit recommendations on how to handle any ethical issues that may arise.

The Ethics Committee oversees research and publication projects conducted by scholars and researchers at the JKU and for which funding bodies or journals may request clearance certificates on the grounds that the research or publication project touches on ethical issues.

In accordance with Section 30 of the 2002 Universities Act, Section 8c of the Federal Hospitals and Sanatoria Act, the Ethics Committee has no authority in matters falling within the responsibility of the Ethics Committee and other corresponding federal and state regulations, or in the area of responsibility held by the Animal Ethics Council.

In accordance with § 30 of the 2002 Universities Act, the JKU Ethics Commission for evaluating clinical trials involving drugs and medical devices, as well as new medical methods and applied medical research involving humans, conducted at the JKU's Faculty of Medicine, the Kepler University Hospital, other hospitals and facilities, and physicians in private practice located in Upper Austria. As a certified ethics committee, the JKU-EK is responsible for evaluating applications submitted for multicenter clinical trials in accordance with § 41b para. 1 of the Austrian Medicines Act (AMG as amended by Federal Law BulletinI No. 23/2020) and § 17 of the Medical Devices Act 2021.

In addition, the Ethics Committee is responsible for evaluating nursing research projects, the use of new nursing and treatment approaches, and new methods of nursing and treatment.

Please see: https://www.jku.at/medizinische-fakultaet/organisation/jku-ethikkommission/ to learn more.

First, contact the Office of the Ethics Advisory Board by e-mail and request an application form. Return the completed form (Including all of the required attachments) by e-mail. We will then initiate the next steps. See the Pt. "Procedure" as well.

The Ethics Advisory Board convenes its meetings as required. Applications for an expert opinion regarding a clearance certificate are decided by the Ethics Committee no later than eight weeks after receiving the application documents.

Clearance certificates may be requested by funding agencies or journals when ethical issues are involved in the research or as part of the proposed publication.

No, clearance certificates are free of charge.

No. The JKU is not required to submit research projects to the Ethics Advisory Board for comment. Submissions to the Ethics Committee are always on a voluntary basis.

As a rule, clearance certificates are issued for research projects in which the funding agency requests an opinion by the Ethics Advisory Board, or for the findings from a publication that is to be published in a scientific journal and requires an ethics statement.

Generally, it is possible.

No. The research application submitted to the funding agency does not have to be submitted to the Ethics Committee. This contains information considered irrelevant to the Ethics Advisory Board.

You can submit the application to the Ethics Advisory Board independently from the research application (which is still often being worked on).

The project information required for the Ethics Committee's evaluation (along with all of the other required documents) are listed in the application form. The application to the Ethics Committee should briefly describe the overall project and address the ethical aspects in greater detail. In addition, the application requires CVs from those responsible for the project, information about the test subjects, participants' consent forms, documentation sheets and data management plans, as well as any other documents.

Yes. As long as the experimental design details have not yet been determined, or documents (such as questionnaires, consent forms, etc.) are not yet available, you do not have to submit them. However, the research project, and in particular the intended data collection, has to be adequately described in order to be evaluated. In addition, the ethically sensitive aspects must be clearly identified and a detailed description of how they will be taken into account must be provided.

No. Each research proposal will be considered on an individual basis. The ethical questions are different in each case, and each ethically significant situation can be addressed differently.  It is essential to be aware of ethical aspects and to adopt an ethically sensitive approach tailored to the project in question.

No. Ethics Committee members will only address submitted applications. The Office of the Ethics Advisory Board will be happy to answer any questions regarding the formalities and procedures.