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Commission on Responsibility in Research

The Commission on Responsibility in Research (KVF) works on the basis of the University of Freiburg’s Guidelines [in German] on the responsible handling of the freedom and risks of research as well as the applicable laws, scientific standards, and relevant professional regulations.

The commission provides assistance to researching members and affiliates of the University of Freiburg in evaluating ethical and legal aspects of security-related research by advising them (advisory procedures). It may issue opinions in cases of doubt concerning the compatibility of research projects with the guidelines (clarification procedures), and it mediates in the event of disagreements between researchers on research ethics issues (mediation procedures).

The commission is composed of members of the following areas of the university:
one professor each from the areas of ethics, humanities and social sciences, life sciences, natural sciences, engineering; one professor who is qualified to hold judicial office; one non-professorial academic staff member; and one doctoral candidate.

The members of the KVF and their deputies were appointed by the Senate in December 2021 for a term from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2024. The doctoral candidate representatives were appointed for one year.

The individual tasks of the KVF are regulated by the Statutes [in German] in the current version.

The office of the KVF is located at the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation and may be contacted under kvf@zv.uni-freiburg.de.

  • Full Professor and with qualifications for judicial office:
    Member an Chairperson: Prof. Dr. Silja Vöneky, Department of Public Law, Faculty of Law
    Deputy: Prof. Dr. Jan von Hein, Department of Foreign and International Private Law, Faculty of Law
  • Full Professor from the field of Ethic
    Member: Prof. Dr. Ursula Nothelle-Wildfeuer, Christian social teaching, Faculty of Theology
    Deputy: Prof. Dr. Oliver Müller, Department of Philosophy Seminar, Faculty of Humanities
  • Full Professor from the field Humanities and social sciences
    Member: Prof. Dr. Evelyn Ferstl, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Economics and Behavioral Sciences
    Deputy: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Christian Mair, Department of English, Faculty of Philology
  • Full Professor from the field Life Sciences
    Member: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Leena Bruckner-Tuderman, Department of Dermatology, Faculty of Medicine
    Deputy: Prof. Dr. Dr. Katharina Domschke, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine
  • Full Professor from the field Sciences
    Member: Prof. Dr. Jens Timmer, Departmentof Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
    Deputy: Prof. Dr. Sabine Rospert, Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine
  • Full Professor from the field Engineering
    Member an Vice Chairman: Prof. Dr. Thomas Stieglitz, Department of Microsystems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering
    Deputy: Prof. Dr. Roland Zengerle, Department of Microsystems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering
  • Academic Stuff
    Member: Dr. Joachim Boldt, Institute for Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine
    Deputy: Dr. Elisa Orrù, Centre for Security and Society, Faculty of Humanities
  • Doctoral candidate
    Member: Julius Jeßberger, Department of Applied Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics 
    Deputy: Toquinh Bergmann, Freiburg Center for Data Analysis and Modeling, Faculty of Biology