CSIC's Ethics Committee

Institutional body with specific competencies with regards to scientific and ethical integrity in research

Nature

CSIC's Ethics Committee is a supportive collegiate body of the Presidency and the Governing Council of and advisory and permanent nature.

As of the date 16th September 2013, CSIC's Ethics Committee was formally recognized as an authorised body to assess projects that involve animal testing.

Functions

CSIC's Ethics Committee exercises the functions entrusted to them under the Article 17 of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC): reflecting, issuing reports and formulating recommendations about ethical and deontological principles related to research activity. Additionally, due to its assessment function regarding the ethical aspects of research within the CSIC framework, the Ethics Committee plays a very significant role ensuring the warranties tracking and controlling requested within the scientific research activity.

Composition

CSIC's Ethics Committee team is heterogeneous and interdisciplinary. It is constituted by a plurality of members, being some of them independent from the CSIC, with a wide range of academic backgrounds (Medicine, Philosophy, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Natural Resources…).

PRESIDENT

Lluís Montoliu José

Scientific researcher

Centro Nacional de Biotecnología (CNB-CSIC)

VICE-PRESIDENT

Carme Torras Genís

Research professor

Instituto de Robótica e Informática Industrial (IRII-CSIC)

SPOKESPERSONS

Antonio Almagro Gorbea

Research professor CSIC

Escuela de Estudios Árabes (EEA-CSIC)

Mª. José Camarasa Rius

Research professor CSIC

Instituto de Química Médica (IQM)

José Javier Lucas Lozano

Research professor CSIC

Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa (CBM)

Carmen Ascaso Ciria

Research profesor

Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN-CSIC)

José Vicente García Ramos

Research professor

Instituto de Estructura de la Materia (IEM-CSIC)

Ananda Pascual Ascaso

Tenured scientist

Instituto Mediterráneo de Estudios Avanzados

(IMEDEA-CSIC)

Víctor Velasco Rodríguez

Research professor

Instituto de Ciencias Materiales de Madrid (ICMM-CSIC)

Carmen Ayuso García

Research and Deputy Director

The Fundación Jiménez Díaz (FJD)

Rodolfo Gutiérrez Palacios

University professor

Universidad de Oviedo

Yolanda Sanz Herranz

Research profesor

Instituto de Agroquímica y Tecnología de Alimentos (IATA-CSIC)

SECRETARY

Mª Luisa Salas García

Higher graduate specialised in Public Research Organism

Director of the CSIC’s Research Ethics Department

Structure - Bioethics Subcommittee and Conflicts Subcommittee

CSIC's Ethics Committee has two subcommittees to meet the specific functions related to its mission: the Bioethics Subcommittee and the Conflicts Subcommittee.

The Bioethics Subcommittee reviews the adequacy of the practises and procedures employed in the development of the research activity within the field of the Life Sciences.

The Conflicts Subcommittee deals with the conflicts reported by CSIC’s staff in the course of scientific activity as well as the different deviations from good practises.

CSIC’s Ethics Committee has established a Procedure for addressing conflicts.

The Research Ethics Department

The Research Ethics Department, ascribed to the CSIC’s Presidency, and created by Resolution on the 9th April 2015 by the mentioned Presidency, is the technical and legal support of the CSIC’s Ethics Committee.

The increasing regulatory demands in the field of ethics, bioethics and biosecurity, the requirements imposed on similar fields by different calling organising entities for aids for R&D projects, as well as the acknowledgement of the Ethics Committee as a collegiate body for the assessment of projects that involve animal testing, have resulted in a constant increase in the amount of management tasks linked to the ethical evaluation, which have implied the creation of a new specialised organizational structure.

Besides of constituting the abovementioned support for the CSIC’s Ethics Committee, the Research Ethics Department contributes to enhance ethics as a fundamental element of the organizational culture, participating in the design, protocols, dissemination and appliance of tools oriented to reinforce integrity and good practises within the Institution.