Research ethics committee

Politecnico di Torino pursues high ethical standards in research with the two-fold objective of protecting the people involved in research activities and fostering scientific quality. Research findings can have an impact on policies and technical decisions both at the level of government agencies and in the private sector. For this reason, it is crucial to conduct research with integrity, responsibility and in compliance with high ethical standards.

Promoting an ethical culture at Politecnico means providing information on ethical issues and supporting researchers through the procedures they need to follow to ensure compliance with ethical principles. Researchers must evaluate the benefits and burdens of their projects and they must consider the impact of research not only on scientific progress, but also on the protection of human dignity and the consequent social and cultural impact of their findings. Research funding agencies and in some cases even publishers require researchers to demonstrate that their research reflects ethical values and protects fundamental rights.

Politecnico has appointed a Research ethics committee with Rector's decree no. 90 of 30.01.2024. This Committee seeks to foster an ethical culture in research and provides evaluation and advice in multiple areas of research.

The Regulations of the Research ethics committee  define its tasks, composition and working methods. The main task of the Research ethics committee of Politecnico di Torino is to provide evaluation, advice and review in multiple areas of research .

The Research ethics committee is not responsible for evaluations conducted by other ethics committees or bodies entitled by law to express themselves on interventional studies such as for example clinical trials of medicines or surgical techniques. The guiding principles of the Ethics committee are independence, competence and interdisciplinarity. It is composed of five incumbent members and five substitute members who may consult other experts on specific issues.

The Research support department helps researchers involved in competitive research calls to understand the ethical requirements, rules and evaluation procedures of national and international funding agencies. To contact the Research support department write to europoli@polito.it.

 

Procedure for requesting an ethical expression

Researchers who want to request an ethics opinion to the Research ethics committee must fill in the documents available at this link and send them to comitatoetico@polito.it.

Only the requests received at the above-mentioned email address at least 20 working days prior to the date set for the meetings will be taken into consideration during the Committee's meetings; requests received later will be postponed to the following meetings.  
The Ethics committee normally provides its opinion within 45 days from the date of receipt of the application. For requests that have already been screened in process by the Committee and resubmitted to proceed with the evaluation, the deadline for their submission is 10 working days prior to the scheduled meeting date.

For research in which the processing of participants' personal data is involved, a careful assessment of the issue is essential.
Therefore, it is advisable to seek expert advice or contact the University's DPO, Adv. Nicoletta Roz, at the following e-mails
: dpo@polito.it; privacy@polito.it while, for data security/storage issues, Eng. Enrico Venuto: ciso@polito.it.