A new tool to support research ethics
The University of Geneva guarantees transparency in collaboration agreements and has committed itself to strengthening ethical and deontological oversight in the field of research.
To meet this requirement, a Statement of ethical risk has been developed. As of now, it allows you to review the various potential risks, including environmental, political and legal risks, those related to dual use, research involving human participants, scientific integrity, or animal experimentation. It also enables you to assess whether such risks exist in your research by means of dedicated self-assessment questionnaires.
Before starting any new research project, we kindly ask you to complete this Statement of ethical risk, which will also be useful for your subsequent procedures with the Research and Grants Office, the Legal Affairs Service, UNITEC, the University Commission for Ethical Research in Geneva, or when opening a fund. The formal launch of this procedure is scheduled for 1 January 2026, but it is already operational so that you can begin familiarising yourself with it.
To keep your administrative workload to a minimum, particular attention has been paid to the ergonomic design of this statement. Once validated, it automatically generates a certificate, sent to you by e-mail, which can be reused for any further administrative procedure. The directives concerning the conclusion of Collaborative Research Agreements and Service Mandates (0283) and the acceptance of donations, bequests and grants (0217) have been updated to reflect this new procedure.
This ethical statement will also be useful when applying for funding from the Fondation pour l’Université de Genève.
The data entered in this statement will be stored on a secure server of the University of Geneva. It will only be accessed for statistical and research support purposes.
Ethical issues in research are a key dimension of scientific excellence. Public transparency regarding our collaborations, the accessibility of available standards and tools for researchers, and the strengthening of oversight are among the institution’s core commitments.
To date, the following resources have been developed and made available online:
- UNIGE International collaborations: available since June 2024, this page focuses on partnership transparency. It provides detailed information on UNIGE’s institutional collaborations by country, projects supported by the SNSF or the European Commission, academic networks of which the institution is a member, mobility agreements, and donations, bequests and subsidies.
- Research ethics: launched in spring 2025 by the Research and Grants Office, this page outlines the nature of the ethical risks associated with academic research, the resources available, and the relevant points of contact within UNIGE and with external authorities..
- Statement of ethical risk: intended for researchers at the University of Geneva, this page provides a self-assessment form to accompany each project, used as of December 2025.