Our Mission

  • A good researcher should reflect the ethical issues and challenges before, during and after conducting the research.
  • Research Ethics Committees (REC) should help researchers in doing good research.
  • Research Integrity Offices (RIO) should assist researchers to monitor their research.
With the ENERI decision tree, we want to help researchers, REC and RIO members to think about ethical questions and challenges that might arise during a planned research project. The tool has been developed to complement the RE&RI manual and intents to help users to find the appropriate ethical questions more quickly. Users will find guidelines, codes and other helpful references for many different research areas, guiding them through a proper ethical reflection. Based on the relevant information the user can decide which parts of the planned research project require ethical reflection and taking into account existing national specificities, it is then up to the user to find the appropriate best solutions to deal with the identified ethical implications based on the national context, EU and international regulations and standards.

How to use the ENERI decision tree?

  • This document is a PDF document. The easiest way to use it is by clicking through the relevant boxes that stand for the different steps/aspects of research. Besides this, it is also possible to read the whole document by just scrolling down.
  • The decision tree is a living document. That means we will update it from time to time with additional information.
  • FIRST STEP: Decide which boxes are relevant for you! Some researchers already have ethical knowledge and an awareness of the appropriate ethical questions. Some are totally new in this field. Furthermore, ethical questions arise on different levels: before, during and after conducting the research. With our decision tree, we offer the opportunity to find tailor-made solutions for your situation: You can decide which boxes to click and where to start.
  • SECOND STEP: Find out what is behind the boxes! You will find not only the most important ethical questions and aspects to consider, but also the relevant codes, guidelines, policy papers, and other literature. Please study the material we offer carefully.
  • BEFORE YOU START: We hope our decision tree will help you as a tool to find the right ethical questions and answers quickly. Of course, there are other ways to find out about the ethical implications of your research project. We strongly recommend all researchers to work not only with our decision tree but also to study the H2020 Ethics self-assessment and the European Commission‘s guideleines on ethics and data protection carefully.
You can download the ENERI decision tree here.