Ethics Committee
The tasks of the Ethics Committee
The statutes of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna stipulate that the Ethics Committee can only act upon a written request from a BOKU researcher. The statutes (C1 Ethics Committee, §13b) also define the tasks of the Ethics Committee:
1. The ethics committee issues ethics statements on the following types of research projects:
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Research projects involving human subjects: For example, research (e.g. interviews, surveys, eye tracking, video observations), which could potentially infringe on the rights (e.g. right to privacy, personal rights), the safety or the well-being of participants (e.g. physical or psychological integrity) or could affect their interests
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Research projects involving animals: For example, studies in which vertebrates are used in a way that goes beyond mere observation or medical care, or when they could be significantly affected by interventions in the ecosystem. The Ethics Committee is not responsible for research projects involving animal experiments.
2. In its statement, the Ethics Committee assesses whether in the course of the project implementation, the rights, safety and well-being of participants are adequately protected (para. 1 point 1) or whether the project complies with the requirements of animal welfare law (para. 1 point 2).
Documents and Submitting an application
The Ethics Committee of the BOKU has been installed in October 2020. The Committee has defined its Rules of Procedure (GeO), which were approved by the Senate and the Rectorate.
The Ethics Committee has defined the steps from the submission of an application until a statement is issued. In this document, you will find the time requirements for the Committee to issue a statement, as well as the types of statements that can be issued.
The Ethics Committee has compiled answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The application must comply with the requirements as stated in the Checklists. Usually either the 'human' or 'animal' checklist will be relevant; however, both checklists are relevant for e.g. on-farm research on animal husbandry. All questions on the checklist(s) must be answered (if a question is not relevant, please answer 'not applicable'). Your application must also include the numbering of the questions as indicated in the checklist.
For research with humans, there is a commented version of the Checklist, giving you some useful background information to the questions in the checklist.
Applications can be submitted at any time, they must be submitted via the on-line form (in German).
To be discussed in the next meeting of the Ethics Committee, applications (conforming to the requirements, see above) must be submitted on the dates listed below. Please note that for all data that will be collected starting 1.1.2023, applications must be submitted in good time, so that the final ethics statement can be issued before the start of data collection (consider that the Ethics Committee might have requests after discussing your application in a meeting that need to be addressed before the final ethics statement can be issued). For all data collected until 31.12.2022 applications can still be submitted after data collection.
Summer term 2024 Wed. 10 Apr. 2024 (meeting on: 25 Apr.) | Winter term 2024/25 Wed. 09 Oct. 2024 (meeting on: 24 Oct.)
Wed. 26 Feb. 2025 (meeting on: 13 Mar.) |
Contact
Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the office of the Ethics Committee:
Head of the office of the Ethics Committee: Mag.a Johanna Ecker
You can reach us by email: ethikkommission(at)boku.ac.at
Adress:
Simon Zeisel Haus (staircase 2, 2nd floor)
Muthgasse 11/II
1190 Vienna
