Guidelines for GACR calls starting in 2025

23 Feb 2024

The Research Ethics Committee accepts applications for project assessment until 18:00 on Monday, March 4, 2024.

The deadline must be met. Applications received after this date will not be considered!

Applications will be assessed in bulk after the submission deadline. In case deficiencies that can be corrected are found in the project proposal, the investigator will be contacted immediately.

If you have any questions or uncertainties during the application preparation, please do not hesitate to contact the Ethics Committee secretary Mgr. Blanka Jančeková, Ph.D.

The application for assessment is submitted via the INET - ISEP information system - Project Proposal Editor application. More information is on the REC website.

When filling in the Ethics tab, it is crucial to indicate the evaluation panel to which the project will be submitted!

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To assess the ethical aspects of the project, please submit the following documents:

- Application for Ethics Review – always fill in the up-to-date form, download here

The investigator is responsible for the correct and complete completion of the information in the application and for its consistency with the project proposal submitted to the funding agency.

- Consent to participate in the research (and to the processing of personal data) - use the recommended template of informed consent here or the informed consent of the collaborating healthcare facility

- In case you plan to cooperate with a healthcare facility that is not a co-investigator of the project, please submit a "Letter of Commitment" (draft version available for download here), which can be submitted by the extended deadline of Friday, 22 March 2024 - please enter the information about the additional documentation in the ISEP - Ethics - Additional Information tab

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Project proponents are advised of the following:

• If the project requires an ethics approval and the project proponent is Masaryk University, the approval must be obtained from the MU Research Ethics Committee  (except for Faculty of Medicine projects, which are assessed by the Faculty of Medicine Ethics Committee).

In which case a project requires ethics review: https://www.muni.cz/o-univerzite/fakulty-a-pracoviste/rady-a-komise/eticka-komise-pro-vyzkum/zadost-o-posouzeni

• To submit a project proposal to the GACR call, the Research Ethics Committee issues a preliminary project approval.
• Preliminary project approvals will be available for download in ISEP - Project proposal editor - Documents on Thursday, 28 March 2024, no later than 3 pm.

• A Preliminary Approval Addendum may be issued to the Preliminary Approval, which specifies the requirements of the Research Ethics Committee that will need to be addressed for final approval to be granted. The addendum will be uploaded with the pre-approval into the ISEP - Project Proposal Editor - Documents and the investigator shall be notified of the addendum.

• If financial support is granted, the project must be submitted to the Research Ethics Committee for final approval. The investigator shall provide a statement that ethically relevant changes have been made/have not been made in the final project proposal submitted to the funding agency compared to the information provided to the REC via the Application for Ethics Review (the template is available). The investigator shall describe and justify these changes where appropriate. If the investigator has received the eddendum to the pre-approval, he or she will need to address the comments.
• If significant differences are found between the preliminary approved project proposal and the version supported by the funding agency, the project will be completely renegotiated  with the risk that the project will not be approved for implementation in case of severe reservations by the REC.