Deadline: 23-Sep-21
The European Commission is calling for proposals to tackle the challenges of research ethics and integrity in response to crisis: the coronavirus pandemic and beyond.
Horizon Europe has a new level of ambition – to maximise the impact of EU research and innovation funding for European science, economy and the wider society.
It marks a paradigm change in the design of the EU R&I Framework Programmes (FP) from an activity-driven to an impact-driven programme.
The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates the importance of R&I cooperation to deliver solutions to society’s most demanding needs. Delivering Europe’s recovery is a priority as are the green and digital twin transitions.
To match these challenges, a new level of ambition that links better R&I with the economy, as well as with education and training, is necessary to put the EU’s scientific knowledge to work.
The new ERA calls for deepening existing priorities and initiatives through new and stronger approaches. The green and digital transitions and the recovery call for cooperation between the Commission and the Member States.
They require the setting of new priorities, launching ambitious joint initiatives and developing common approaches between policies.
Scope
- The first priority is to analyse what characterises, from an ethics perspective, a crisis of a global, sudden and unexpected nature of the type of the Covid-19 pandemic, and isolate what are the related ethics and integrity challenges as regards the production, sharing and use of scientific knowledge and data in designing and implementing responses as well as in anticipating future global urgencies.
- Derogations of human rights and freedoms, albeit in the interests of the public good, must be temporary, proportionate, used only as last resort, and critically there must be clear transparent criteria for their suspension e.g. in the form of sunset clauses to emergency legislation.
- The greatest danger – during and after the end of any formal ‘state of emergency’ – is a ‘new normal’ of eroded rights and liberties. For example, the pressing need to collect large amounts of personal data raises important questions regarding the preservation of privacy, and should be assessed carefully against the need to ensure information of data subjects and the possibility to pursue alternative means.
- An important element that characterises major crises is that they go beyond the impact on the wellbeing of persons and touches the society more globally notably in terms of solidarity and social justice, as well as gender equality.
- Mid and long-term social, cultural and economic consequences are also more prominent in these unusual research contexts.
- The issues related to the role of ethics and integrity experts (as advisors, for example), informed consent, undue inducement, the right to know, and to opt out should be among the elements to tackle.
- Based on this analysis, the action should draw the lessons and examine how to adapt processes followed under normal conditions (e.g. for informed consent, regulatory approvals etc.).
- The scope should also cover the ethics of the scientific work on public health measures (such as behavioural studies, communication strategies, gender impacts on health), including those aiming at an increased preparedness.
- The objective is to cover emerging ethics issues related to new concepts like “immunisation certification” that are at the centre of vivid debates involving fundamental values.
Funding Information
Grant amount is equal to or greater than EUR 500 000 except for:
- public bodies (entities established as a public body under national law, including local, regional or national authorities) or international organisations; and
- cases where the individual requested grant amount is not more than EUR 60 000 (lowvalue grant).
Expected Outcomes
Projects are expected to contribute to the following expected outcomes:
- Crises, and in particular health related ones, have become a dramatic reality for the EU and globally since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Scientific knowledge focuses the attention, as it is a key element to address the urgency of the situation in an effective way and improve preparedness for the future.
- The extremely heavy human, social, cultural and economic consequences associated with the time pressure sets exceptional conditions calling for an adaptation of the way and procedures to work, and decide and prioritise which inevitably raises associated ethical questions.
- Some research topics have an intrinsically complex ethics dimension, for example research on the imposing of protection measures, health care prioritization, consequences for family life, and gender impacts on health.
- In this context, the activity proposed is expected to propose an operational ethics and integrity framework, which preserves the key ethics principles while supporting a rapid and effective response to a crisis and improving overall preparedness.
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.
- A ‘legal entity’ means any natural or legal person created and recognised as such under national law, EU law or international law, which has legal personality and which may, acting in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations, or an entity without legal personality.
- To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e:
- the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions;
- the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States;
- eligible non-EU countries:
- countries associated to Horizon Europe
- low- and middle-income countries
For more information, visit https://bit.ly/3w4RiU7