Research and ethics

Source: https://www.tu.berlin/en/research/research-profile/research-and-ethics Parent: https://www.tu.berlin/en/studying

Ethical reflection on appropriate goals and means of scientific research is given an increasingly prominent role in the German and European research landscape. The Technische Universität Berlin is aware of its social responsibility as a renowned research institution. Therefore, the Executive Board of TU Berlin has decided to establish a Commission for Ethics in Research. This commission was constituted in February 2021.

The Commission for Ethics in Research advises the Presidential Board and will not issue regular ethics votes on research and publication applications by scientists at TU Berlin. For this purpose, decentralized ethics committees have been and will be established in the faculties. In a first step, the comission has drafted ethical guidelines for research at the Technische Universität Berlin, which are to be binding for the entire TU Berlin.

In individual cases, the committee may also be called upon to advise on critical projects, for example with regard to dual-use issues, to ensure compliance with the TU Berlin's civil clause, or to evaluate general ethical issues.

Other issues on which the commission can be approached:

• Evaluation of dual use questions on ethics in technology research, IT research, biological-chemical research on a case-by-case basis
• Evaluation of compliance with the civil clause at the TU Berlin in individual cases
• Evaluation of critical cases in the context of the export control procedure (BAFA) in individual cases
• If necessary, processing of further compliance issues that are not yet foreseeable today
• Evaluation of critical individual cases that cannot be handled in the decentralized ethics committees and corresponding recommendations
• Contact point and clearing house for all decentralized ethics committees
• Recommendations for relevant further training of members of the TU Berlin

The chairpersons of the decentralized ethics committees of the TU Berlin are entitled to submit applications to the commission in addition to the members of the Presidential Board and the committee members. Further details are regulated by the bylaws.

Documents

• Ethical guidelines of the TU Berlin (2022) (pdf, 223 kB)
• Bylaws of the Commission for research and ethics (2022) (pdf, 101 kB)

Zur Erweiterung der Fach- und Prozesskompetenz werden zu den Sitzungen der KEF auch die nicht stimmberechtigte Berater*innen qua Amt eingeladen.

The Joint Committee on the Handling of Security-Relevant Research is a body established by the DFG and the Leopoldina to sustainably strengthen awareness of the dual usability of research results and the responsible handling of security-relevant research, as well as the self-regulation of science in this regard.

Links zu den Publikationen und zur Webseite des Ausschusses

• Joint Committee on the Handling of Security-Related Research
• "Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Recommendations" (2022)
• "Scientific Freedom and Scientific Responsibility" (2014)
• “The Handling of Security-Relevant Research in Germany"(2022)
• Progress reports of Joint Committee on the Handling of Security-Related Research

Other interesting documents

• National Academy of Science and Engineering: Impulse paper (2022)

The main task of the decentralized ethics committees, which review the ethical soundness of research proposals and publication submissions on a professional level, is to issue corresponding ethics votes. These ethics committees act as Approval Committees (Research Ethics Committees - RECs), i.e. regularly working committees that evaluate a growing number of applications (e.g. third-party funding applications, publication submissions, etc.). The members of the decentralized ethics committees come for the most part from the respective disciplines for which they review the applications and must have acquired expertise through appropriate training events or tutorials.

If a decentralized ethics committee is unable to conclusively evaluate a complex application despite intensive consideration, the chairperson can request advice from the commission for research and ethics.