Ethics-Committee Faculty of Theology

The Ethics-Committee of the Faculty of Theology is responsible for ethical review of research-projects, which are conducted within the Faculty of Theology (Theology and Study of Religions). It's members have been elected by the Faculty-Assembly and are not bound by directives in their practice.

A vote from the ethics committee may be necessary when applying for research funding (e.g., from the Swiss National Science Foundation) or in connection with the publication of research results in a scientific journal. This is especially true if the research project involves research with human subjects (e.g., interview or observation studies). The ethics committee can also be asked for an advisory opinion on the planning of empirical research projects involving human subjects, even if a formal opinion is not explicitly required.

To assess whether it is recommended to seek an evaluation of a research project by the ethics committee, the "Data Protection and Ethics Self-Assessment Tool" (DESAT) of the University of Zurich should be consulted beforehand. DESAT is accessible to all UZH researchers via the "Contract Management for Third-Party Funds" (AVA) portal as a standalone module:

Log in to AVA at https://ava.uzh.ch/de/
Create a "New Project" (click the button at the top right)
Enter the title of the research project and click "Create Project"
In the overview, click on "DESAT" (bottom of the left column)
Follow the instructions in the questionnaire – for the ethics application, it is sufficient to complete the (shorter) ethics part; however, we also recommend that you review the data protection aspects of your project using DESAT.

If you do not have a UZH login, you can alternatively use the following checklist: checklist (PDF, 69 KB).

UZH Policy on ethical review for research on and with human participants.