Ethical matters are fundamental issues to address in all research proposals involving health research. Failure to address ethical issues in your grant application can have major consequences for the outcome of your application.
It is important to be aware that ethics review of all submitted grant applications begins at scientific evaluation. During these scientific evaluations, not only is your application reviewed for its scientific value, but also if ethical issues are raised and how these are addressed by the applicants. Further evaluation by specialized ethical panels established by the European Commission will then follow.
Therefore, the aim of the informatin on our web site is to provide you with key tips, advice, documents, and key web links that are needed and also give you a step by step guide into completing an ethical section in any EU health grant application. Much of the following advice was presented at the Training on Ethics in Health research and or is already published ealrwhere, so can be found in many other documents, but we hope by collating this it will aid your research. In general, following these practices will help ensure the ethics section is complete, accurate, and robust and hence should be seen as a strength and asset in your EU grant application. Remember, we reiterate, as grants are reviewed, the scientific reviewers also check for ethical issues, so this will give a positive impression of a well rounded research application.
