Deadline: 9-Mar-23
European Commission is seeking proposals from legal entities to support an effective adaptation of the ethics reviews to the evolution of scientific research, notably due to the emergence of new areas of research and new forms of research collaborations.
The emergence of new areas of research and development, including in the areas of gene editing and artificial intelligence, and the shift of research activities and collaborations to the online digital space, challenge the future of research ethics reviews.
At the same time, ethics should focus on the adherence to values and principles and not be a legal compliance mechanism. It is also necessary to prevent ethics reviews and assessments from becoming a red-tape mechanism, especially as the ex-ante-model of traditional ethics oversight might not be apt to deal with new challenges for example stemming from various forms of data re-use and the often unpredictable and tentative nature of big data research and unforeseeable risks.
Among the key concerns are research activities that do not involve traditional ‘research participants’ or where there are no established practices or legal obligations to undergo ethics review. A pertinent example is research assembling and analysing large volumes of existing (anonymised) research data, data produced as a by-product of people’s use of technological devices and services, and other categories of non-personal data. The absence of the traditional individual research participant or data subjects, however, does not mean the research activities do not pose ethical challenges or risks.
To address these requirements, Destination 3 of part 11 of the Horizon Europe work programme will support efforts to reform and enhance the European R&I system. Destination 3 is built around four strands corresponding to the four objectives set out in the ERA Communication:
- Prioritising investments and reforms in research and innovation;
- Improving access to excellence, progressing towards excellence across the whole EU and striving for stronger research and innovation systems;
- Translating R&I results into the economy to meet the digital and green transition objectives, and boost the resilience and competitiveness of thier economies and societies;
- Deepening the ERA, to further progress the free circulation of knowledge and to ensure an upgraded, efficient and effective R&I system.
Funding Information
The total indicative budget for the topic is EUR 3.00 million.
Expected Outcomes
In order to support an effective adaptation of the ethics reviews to the evolution of scientific research, notably due to the emergence of new areas of research and new forms of research collaborations, projects are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:
- Evaluate the effectiveness of current approaches to the ethics reviews in ensuring the embeddedness of human rights in the development of digital technologies and promoting adherence to ‘digital rights’ and ‘digital principles’ in the context of research and related international cooperation and partnership;
- Develop new approaches to ethics reviews and assessments. This should focus on developing systems and procedures that promote an ethics by design culture fostering innovation, while supporting the research community to operationalize and embed new and upcoming EU human rights driven legal frameworks in research proposals, in line with the ethics by design approach;
- Enable the ethics processes to better inform policy choices about the uses of new and emerging technologies and support the researchers in incorporating ethical considerations into their research, thereby contributing to the protection of human rights and the promotion of EU values. For example, the GDPR, since its adoption has inspired the adoption and reform of privacy and data protection frameworks globally, resulting in a so-called ‘Brussels effect.
Expected Impact
Proposals for topics under this Destination should set out a credible pathway to contributing to the following expected impacts, focussing on those that are most relevant to the respective topic:
- Reform and enhance of the European R&I system;
- Prioritisation of investments and reforms, accomplish the recovery and the twin transitions;
- Improved access to excellence;
- High quality scientific production and stronger translation of R&I results into the economy;
- Deepen the ERA;
- Coordinated national and regional R&I programmes by pooling national resources and contributing to the alignment of national research and innovation policies;
- Improved knowledge for policy making about the networking patterns of research support staff and research management;
- Synergies between research & innovation and higher education policies and programmes;
- Modernised higher education sector, adressing higher education, research, and innovation;
- Increased number of interconnected knowledge ecosystems, strong in knowledge creation, circulation and use;
- Researchers benefitting from attractive careers;
- Inclusive gender equality is promoted in the European research and innovation system;
- A more open and inclusive research and innovation system;
- Increased capacity in the EU R&I system to conduct open science and to set it as a modus operandi of modern science;
- Increased engagement of citizens with research and innovation;
- Increased alignment of strategic research with societal needs, expectations and values;
- Identify synergies between second and third level education, and between education and business;
- Increased trust in science and R&I outcomes, and greater two-way communication between science and society;
- Knowledge and a highly skilled workforce circulate freely;
- Improved capacities within the EU R&I system to conduct open science;
- A more open and inclusive research and innovation system.
Eligibility Criteria
Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from non-associated third countries or international organisations (including international European research organisations) is eligible to participate (whether it is eligible for funding or not), provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation have been met, along with any other conditions laid down in the specific call topic.
For more information, visit Horizon Europe Framework Programme.