Division Introduction

In order to implement Article 6 of FP7 and Article 15 of the Rules for Participation, the evaluation procedure includes an initial identification of ethical issues raised by the proposals followed by an ethics screening of proposals that raise ethical issues. When necessary, an ethics review of proposals may take place after the ethics screening and before any selection decision by the ERCEA in accordance to the set rules. The ethics screening and the ethics review (to be referred to jointly as Ethics Review Procedure in this Annex) are carried out by independent experts with the appropriate skills in ethics.

The objective of the Ethics Review Procedure is to make sure that the European Union does not support research which would be contrary to fundamental ethical principles set out in the relevant EU rules and to examine whether the research complies with the rules relating to research ethics set out in the Decisions on FP7 and the Ideas Specific Programme. The opinions of the European Group on Ethics in Science and New technologies are and will be taken into account.