Ethics Committee for Research Activities

In 2021 FH Campus Wien became the first University of Applied Sciences in Austria to establish its own ethics committee.

FH Campus Wien had already established an ethics committee for research projects in the health sciences study programs in 2014. Due to the high demand for research ethics questions, this committee was expanded to include all seven departments in 2017. FH Campus Wien has now taken a decisive step further and is the first University of Applied Sciences in Austria to establish its own ethics committee.

For Vienna as a business and university location, this is an important step towards the future:

FH Campus Wien’s ethics committee advises on research ethics issues and specific legal and data protection principles. It sees itself as establishing an ethical discourse on compliance with good scientific practice, and thus assumes responsibility and offers support to research projects in guaranteeing compliance with ethical research guidelines.

The variety of courses embedded in seven departments from different disciplines results in an abundance of research opportunities. In order to be able to do justice to these diverse and often very heterogeneous research projects and methodological approaches, an ethics committee is necessary which is appropriate to these challenges

In the process, the ethics committee acts without instructions and undertakes to follow international ethical guidelines - such as the Declaration of Helsinki, Austrian Agency for Scientific Integrity’s (ÖAWI)Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Scientific Practice its current version 2019 (PDF, 897 KB) and the core principles of social science research ethics.

The main task of the ethics committee within the rules and regulations (see § 3 of the GO) is the assessment of research work and projects with regard to ethical research aspects, which also includes examining suitable research methodology according to ethical criteria. An assessment can only take place after an ethics application has been submitted. You can find more information about the assessment in the download area under FAQ.

After assessment, the ethics committee decides whether to issue a vote (see Section 4 of the GO).

The rules and regulations of FH Campus Wien’s ethics committee can be found in the download area of the submission platform.

The interdisciplinary ethics committee of FH Campus Wien consists of 13 permanent members (§1 GO), for each of which a deputy has been appointed. In addition, the committee has a pool of experts at its disposal.

The chairperson of the ethics committee is KommR. OStR. Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Andreas Schnider, his two deputies are Dr.in Maria Fürstaller and FH-Prof. Univ. Doz.Dr.in Ines Swoboda.

Members of the ethics committee are:

+ the Vice-Rector for Research and Development:

FH-Prof.ⁱⁿ Mag.^a Dr.ⁱⁿ Elisabeth Haslinger-Baumann, DGKP;  FH-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.mont. Heimo Sandtner, Rektor (deputy)

+ a member of the council:

FH-Prof.in Mag.a Verena Musil, MSc MBA; Gerhard Eder, MSc MSc (deputy)

The following representatives of FH Campus Wien’s departments of are members of the ethics committee:

+ a lawyer

Mag.a Monika Zach, MA; Mag.a Anna Gruböck (Deputy)

+ a doctor:

Dr. Roland Frank

+ a patient representative:

Mag.a Anita Kavalirek

+ a person with a science-based research ethics competence:

KommR. OStR. Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Andreas Schnider; Dozent (PD) Dr. Andreas Klein (deputy)

Should you have any questions about data protection law, please contact our data protection expert:

> DIin (FH) Daniela Janko

Head of Quality Management, Data Protection Coordinator

For any further questions, please contact the ethics committee at ethik@fh-campuswien.ac.at or on +43 1 606 68 77- 1585/1532.

You will be redirected to our submission platform via the icon "submission platform". There you will find all relevant and fundamental information on submitting an ethics application. No submission will take place by clicking the icon "submission platform". To submit a submission, you must first create a user account on this submission platform.

In the download area of our submission platform you will find

• all fundamental/relevant information for preparing an application
• as well as for submitting an application

to FH Campus Wien’s ethics committee.

Please note the respective submission deadlines for each committee sitting.

The following applications can NOT be processed by the ethics committee of FH Campus Wien:

• Studies that fall under the Medical Devices Act (MPG) and the Medicines Act (AMG). If you are pursuing a research project in this regard, please liaise with the contact person in the discipline-specific department of FH Campus Wien.
• Applications for research projects that deal with the manipulation of animals or the killing of animals for the purpose of organ and tissue removal, and the creation and use of transgenic animals.
• The work of the ethics committee is in the consolidation phase, so only applications for projects that are institutionally anchored at the FH Campus Wien can currently be processed (as of May 2021).

Academic year 2022/23:

Sitting of 25^th April 2023
End of the submission period 26^th March 2023

Sitting of 30^th May 2023
End of the submission period 2^nd May 2023

Academic year 2023/24:

Sitting of 19^th September 2023
End of the submission period 22^nd August 2023

Sitting of 17^th October 2023
End of the submission period 19^th September 2023

Sitting of 14^th November 2023
End of the submission period 24^th October 2023

Sitting of 12^th December 2023
End of the submission period 14^th November 2023

Sitting of 20^th February 2024
End of the submission period 23^th January 2024

Sitting of 23^rd April 2024
End of the submission period 26^th March 2024

Sitting of 28^th May 2024
End of the submission period 30^th April 2024

Sitting of 25^th June 2024
End of the submission period 29^th May 2024

Submissions June – August:
Applications can also be submitted during the non-sitting period (June – August). Please note, however, that this may take longer to process.