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.
