Applications

If, on the basis of the checklist, your research needs to be presented to the Ethics Committee, you are required to take the following steps:

Contact a data steward from the faculty via researchsupport@hum.leidenuniv.nl at least six weeks before the deadline of the Ethics Committee (dates given below) to draft a data management plan (DMP).

Then you need to fill out the  standard application form. The completed form needs to be evaluated by the privacy officer first before you can submit it to the Ethics Committee. Please send your completed application form and the relevant documents (the DMP, and if relevant also the consent form and information form) to the faculty’s privacy officer, Emma van den Dorpel (e.m.s.van.den.dorpel@BB.leidenuniv.nl) at least four weeks before the deadline of the Ethics Committee. If the privacy officer identifies any privacy issues, you may be asked to alter your application before it is evaluated by the Ethics Committee during their regular meeting.

After the approval of the data steward and the privacy officer, you then need to submit your application form to the Ethics Committee yourself (ethics@hum.leidenuniv.nl).

Only complete applications (the standard application form, and if applicable the information sheet and informed consent forms) submitted before the deadlines listed below will be discussed during the next meeting of the Ethics Committee.

Additional documents such as grant applications will not be reviewed.

The following persons may apply to the Committee for an ethical review: 

• Staff of the Faculty of Humanities or the Faculty of Archaeology. 
• PhD candidates affiliated to the Faculty Graduate School of the Faculty of Humanities or the Faculty of Archaeology. These may be contract PhD candidates, PhD candidates employed by Leiden University and external PhD candidates. 
• Persons who make use of the facilities of the Faculty of Humanities or the Faculty of Archaeology. 
• Students who are enrolled in a research master programme of the Faculty of Humanities and who have approval from their supervisor to apply for ethics review.

The committee does not review research conducted by students. The supervisor/instructor is responsible for assessing whether research conducted by students is ethically acceptable.

The committee only reviews proposed research. Ongoing or completed research will not be reviewed. The application form needs to be completed in correct and understandable English. If this is not the case, the committee has the option to reject the application and request a resubmission.

Short procedure 

For research that has already been approved by an ethics committee of a different university, only the approval needs to be presented to the committee. If the LU committee recognizes the external committee that has provided the approval, the research does not need to be presented to the LU committee. 
If the proposed research is similar to research that has received approval by the committee, the application form of the approved research supplemented with a short summary (maximum 500 words) of the differences between the proposed research and the approved research needs to be presented to the committee. 

Dates Ethics Committee

• Meeting: Monday 16 September 2024 > Deadline: Monday 2 September 2024
• Meeting: Tuesday 15 October 2024 > Deadline: Tuesday 1 October 2024
• Meeting: Monday 18 November 2024 > Deadline: Monday 4 November 2024
• Meeting: Tuesday 17 December 2024 > Deadline: Tuesday 3 December 2024

Your application will first be checked by the Privacy Officer of the Faculty. If complex privacy matters occur that take time to resolve, your application may need to be passed on to the next meeting of the ethics committee.