Ethical Review

Latest update: August 2022

The Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity and the derived Code of Ethics of Eindhoven University states that for both students and staff: “In their research and design, they adhere to the ethical codes for activities in which human subjects and animals are involved.”.

As of Sept 1, 2021, all students that work with users or participants should complete the ERB form offline (you can find it here) and follow this procedure:

The responsible staff member (coach, mentor) will sign the form and help assess if the proposed project is within minimal risk. In general students should (try to) remain within the ERB minimal risk guidelines.
After the member of staff has signed, students email their form to ethics@remove-this.tue.nl. If the ethics team agrees it is within minimal risk, students will receive a confirmation letter which they upload in Canvas. If the proposed project is not within minimal risk, the ethics team will ensure the local or central ERB evaluated the project. If they approve, student will receive an approval letter, which they must upload to Canvas.
If there are questions on this please contact your coach/supervisor first; if your questions are not answered you can contact ID.ERB@remove-this.tue.nl. If you want to submit your form to the Ethics Committee, please email ethics@remove-this.tue.nl.
If there are specific questions about data storage please contact ID data steward Edyta Cios at e.a.cios@remove-this.tue.nl.

As soon as possible after the definition of the project; to do so the Benefits (for the project), Burden (for the user), Risks and Limitations of the project will need to be clear. See also separate document on this. Generally speaking, it is good to make these considerations in the early phases of a project.

You can read more information about the further procedure and process on this webpage.

Based on the completed Ethical Review Form, there is made a decision on the level of risk. When there is more than minimal risk, the ethics committee will review the ERB form application. This process takes approximately three weeks before receiving an approval or denial.

In case of a high risk (level 3) the content of the Ethical Review form is discussed with the Ethical Review Board. This process can take even longer.

The decisions are documented in a letter to the mentor/supervisor.

You can find the members of the Ethical Review Board and their meeting dates on this webpage.

You can also read more about this in the separate document.

No.

Yes, if that is possible.

Please first check the “How to deal with audio-recordings” in the download files.
Yes, audio-recordings that are transcribed soon after the interviews have taken place and not saved as research data can be considered to be within minimal risk. The transcripts then can be saved as research data, but the recordings should be deleted as soon as possible. Other strategies (such as note taking) are always preferable and safer, so discuss with your coach if audio-recordings are necessary.

Design research processes have to align with ethical procedures.

You can discuss this with your mentor/supervisor, see if it is possible to bring the risk of the project down to minimal risk. If you need further input you can contact ID.ERB@tue.nl

Typically, concrete and manageable recommendations for improvements are made. You have to hand in the new Ethical Review Form with your changes/improvements. There is no guarantee of approval though, the timeframe might differ, based on the risk.

The ERB board does not require that research prototypes created at the TU/e, require a CE certification to be used in research studies. CE certification is a route only viable for industrial products. For products, made at the TU/e at the Department of Industrial Design, to be used in interaction with people and/or providing possible safety risks (voltage/temperature/…) a sanity check by the d-search labs is necessary. In the current situation it may be good to contact Jan Rouvroye.

You as a student need to uphold to the rules of both the university as the external party. The ERB is only concerned with upholding TU/e academic ethical standards.

Please find more information on consent (forms) here and in the top right corner of this page. 

Children can give informed consent as from 16 years of age. For younger children, consent from their parents/guardians is always necessary. As children grow older it is also good practice to ask their own consent as well. This is depending also on the nature of the project.

Yes.

You can discuss this with your supervisor/coach/mentor. If you need further input you can contact ID.ERB@tue.nl 

Students and staff sometimes organize activities or generative/ creative sessions as part of their design research process. In most cases, such activities have been approved collectively already, provided they stay within some general boundaries. To check if your own session is already covered by the available ethics approval, please use the self-check.

What data is personal?

‘Human' or 'Personal' data is information that can be traced back to an individual (directly or indirectly)

According to GDPR (EU) AVG (NL):

• name, identification number, location data, online identifier.
• Physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural, social identity. This includes, under the GDPR, voice recordings

Please note: there is a difference between logistic data and research data:

• Logistic data you need to contact the individuals, inform them and gather information
• Research data is the actual information you need to do your research/ arrive at your conclusions.

Using data is not forbidden but you need to respect privacy with GDPR compliant processes (see below).

You can use the DataFoundry to collect, manage and store data for your research securely. For more information see this webpage: https://data.id.tue.nl.

Alternatively, you can store data collected with various means (the university recommends using Microsoft Forms for surveys and Microsoft Teams for interviews) securely at SurfDrive, connected to your TU/e account: https://www.surf.nl/en/store-and-share-your-files-securely-in-the-cloud-with-surfdrive.

Please check the “How to deal with audio-recordings” in the download files. If there are specific questions about data storage please contact ID data steward Anne Aarts at a.m.w.m.aarts@tue.nl.

Furthermore, take all these aspects into consideration when you use/collect/store personal date:

• Store in dedicated project directory
• Pseudonymize your data set and store the person identifiable data separately
• Do not share identifiable personal data easily with third parties
• Collect and store only the necessary information; clip any unnecessary information from the data set as soon as possible
• Use personal data only for the purpose for which they are intended in the first instance
• Do not leave personal data unattended, use a good password/lock your computer when you leave your workplace