Tasks and responsibilities
Overview
Overview
Overview
Responsibility of the Ethics Committee of the Medical Faculty of the University of Cologne
In principle, the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Cologne (EK Köln) is responsible for all application procedures submitted by members of the University of Cologne. In accordance with Section 9 of the Higher Education Act, members of universities include, among others, university staff who are not only temporarily or temporarily employed on a full-time basis, professors who independently perform university tasks in research and teaching, doctoral candidates and enrolled students. The Ethics Committee of the University's Faculty of Medicine is not responsible for the following persons unless they are employed full-time at the University of Cologne or the University Hospital of Cologne. These are in detail
- part-time, discharged or retired or
- adjunct professors as well as
- honorary professors and
- private lecturers.
For the aforementioned exceptions, an application must be submitted to the ethics committee responsible for these persons (e.g. the relevant medical association) in the event of a professional or statutory duty to consult.
Licensed physicians are subject to a professional consultation obligation for all biomedical research projects with the exception of exclusively retrospective epidemiological research projects.
Research on humans includes research on living humans and on the bodies of deceased persons, on human biomaterial and on human data.
Eligible applicants to the Cologne Ethics Committee
Full-time staff employed at the university
- Full-time employees are those who spend at least half of their regular working hours performing tasks within the university's remit.
Doctors
- who are employed full-time at the University Hospital or University of Cologne
- generally no responsibility for physicians who are employed full-time at academic teaching hospitals
Non-approved registered doctoral candidates at the University of Cologne
as part of a doctoral project
Please note: We would ask that you submit doctoral projects as part of larger projects or collaborative projects, rather than submitting a separate application for each individual project.
This can help to reduce the administrative burden and processing time.
Approved registered doctoral candidates at the University of Cologne
- who are employed full-time at the University Hospital or University of Cologne
- for purely retrospective research projects (note: for research projects that are not purely retrospective, the supervisor is generally required to provide advice; in this case, the application must be submitted to the ethics committee responsible for the supervisor).
- for non-purely retrospective research projects carried out at the University of Cologne or the University Hospital (note: in some cases, the supervisor may have a separate professional duty to consult with the ethics committee responsible for him or her)
private lecturers
- who are employed full-time at the University Hospital or University of Cologne
- No responsibility for private lecturers who are employed full-time at academic teaching hospitals
- No responsibility for private lecturers who are employed full-time at other institutions
adjunct professors
- who are employed full-time at the University Hospital or University of Cologne
- No responsibility for adjunct professors who are employed full-time at academic teaching hospitals
- No responsibility for adjunct professors who are employed full-time at other institutions
Part-time, discharged, or retired professors at the University of Cologne
- No jurisdiction whatsoever, unless the research project can be assigned to the higher education sector
Honorary professors
- No jurisdiction whatsoever, unless the research project can be assigned to the higher education sector