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Everyone with ¹û¶³´«Ã½ affiliation (including students) must register their research involving human participants and ask for ethical approval. Ethical approval is also necessary when processing data from human participants that were collected by an external party, which is considered the processing of secondary data.  

If your research or educational activity involves one of the following items, you need to register your research project for :

• Human participants
• Any participant involved in data collection, such as survey, interview, observation, experiment, user testing, etc.
• Including participants who report on an aggregated level, such as an organizational level.
• Personal data (e.g. names, e-mail addresses, home address, nationality, ethnicity, income, gender, education, place of employment, work position, location data (e.g., GPS, IP address), audio and video recordings, images (e.g., photos of participants, MRI or ultrasound scans, images of body parts), physiological data, health and medical data, personal preferences and beliefs) – even if this data is anonymized ethical approval is still needed!
• Existing databases with personal data;
• Human tissue (non-commercial);
• A medical device or technology for medical device development;
• A collaboration with a healthcare facility, hospital, rehabilitation center, etc, including all e/MTIC research projects.
• When Medical Research Ethics Committee (MREC) submission is done by the healthcare facility.

Remember: if your research involves human participants and/or personal data, you cannot start your research without ethical approval.

How to Apply for Ethical Review at ¹û¶³´«Ã½

Depending on the nature of the research you are planning to conduct, you can select one of the following options to apply for ethical review by ¹û¶³´«Ã½â€™s Ethical Review Board (ERB):

• Ethical review for non-medical research
  Applicable to ¹û¶³´«Ã½ scientific staff and Bachelor/Master students. All ERB applications for non-medical research must be submitted digitally through the .
  Important: Before submitting an ERB request, you must first create and receive approval for a within the same platform.

• Ethical review for medical research or research involving a medical device
  If you run medical research or your study involves a device that might be classified as medical (for the definition of a medical device, see: Your project needs to be registered at the ¹û¶³´«Ã½ first so that the policy officer medical/device research can support you in applying for ethical approval by an external Medical Research Ethics Committee (MREC) (In Dutch: Medisch Ethische Toetsingscommissie, METC). You can find more info .

If necessary, consult a data steward on RDM and privacy-related sections of the ERB form. You can contact the RDM support team via rdmsupport@remove-this.tue.nl or reach out to a data steward assigned to your faculty at least two weeks before submitting your application to the ERB.

I am planning a research project that involves human participants and/or personal data. What steps should I take before I can start?

Before you start your research involving human participants and/or personal data, you need to obtain ethical approval. Please visit the Ethical Review Board page to select a process that applies to your situation. All applications are submitted digitally via the . The first step is to create and receive approval for a Data Management Plan (DMP) in the platform. Once the DMP is approved, you can proceed with your ERB application. If you have questions regarding privacy topics or need support completing the ERB form, contact the data stewards via rdmsupport@tue.nl.