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ELSA Webinar Series Research Ethics

The ELSA Working Group Ethics is proud to announce the upcoming online webinar series on research ethics.

Tackling various topics and questions ranging from “What is (research) ethics?” to “Should we care about the CARE principles?” the series aims to engage anyone interested in ethics: researchers, research data professionals and ethics committee members but also the general public.

The talks will be given in English, starting at 16:00 h with 30-40 min presentations followed by 20-30 minutes for discussion.

Access to the webinars via Zoom

Programme overview 2026

    Date Topic Speaker
    5 February 2026, 16:00 – 17:00 h Introduction to Research Ethics Prof. Dr. Hella von Unger, LMU Munich
    4 March 2026, 16:00 – 17:00 h Ethical aspects of human-participant research data collection: The open-source “Ethiktool” software Prof. Dr. Alexandra Bendixen, TU Chemnitz
    25 March 2026, 16:00 – 17:00 h Ethics and data reuse – How researchers are considering data sharing in their research ethics proposals Maximilian Frank, M.Sc., LMU Munich
    29 April 2026, 16:00 – 17:00 h Ethics and social risk assessment for secondary use of sensitive data Prof. Dr. Silke Schicktanz, University Medical Center Göttingen & Prof. Dr. Rainer Mühlhoff, Osnabrück University
    10 June 2026, 16:00 – 17:00 h CARE principles Dr. Josef Jeschke, University and State Library of Saxony-Anhalt Halle
    1 July 2026, 16:00 – 17:00 h Dark Data – when your data is lost and you don’t even know Dr.-Ing. Björn Schembera, University of Stuttgart
    7 October 2026, 16:00 – 17:00 h  Sociology and Ethics of Quantification Prof. Walter Radermacher, LMU Munich
    4 November 2026, 16:00 – 17:00 h Hidden choices in data curation Nico Formanek, High-performance Computing Center Stuttgart
    2 December 2026, 16:00 – 17:00 h  Creating ethics applications for data-use projects efficiently: Practical support for researchers through eTIC+ Dr. Sonja Mathes, TU Munich

     

    Details

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    5 February 2026: Introduction to Research Ethics

    Prof. Dr. Hella von Unger, LMU Munich

    16:00 – 17:00 h

    This introduction to research ethics focuses on social science research ethics and situates it within the broader field of scientific integrity and its close entanglement with data protection and privacy concerns. It explores how research ethics and data ethics intersect, overlap, and sometimes diverge. Drawing on examples from ethics consultation and review practice, the presentation illustrates key challenges in translating research ethics principles into everyday social science research practice.

    To the slides: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18496265

    4 March 2026: Ethical aspects of human-participant research data collection: The open-source “Ethiktool” software

      Prof. Dr. Alexandra Bendixen, TU Chemnitz

      16:00 – 17:00 h

      Collecting, using and re-using data from human participants requires their informed consent, as well as the obedience of further principles of research ethics. In many institutions, studies involving human participants must be reviewed by an ethics committee. Based on our long-standing ethics committee work, we have developed the open-source Ethiktool software that allows researchers to generate an ethics application with all information and consent forms for their participants, including an EU-GDPR-compliant data privacy statement. In my talk, I will demonstrate how the software supports both researchers and ethics committees and how it fosters synergies between research ethics and research data management.

      To the slides: https://www.nfdi.de/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/20260304_ELSA_EthikTool.pdf

      25 March 2026: Ethics and data reuse - How researchers are considering data sharing in their research ethics proposals

        Maximilian Frank, M.Sc., LMU Munich

        16:00 – 17:00 h

        As part of its efforts to promote the provision and sharing of research data in psychology, the DGPs (German Psychological Society) has developed an access-class concept for research data. For several years, this concept has also been used in ethics proposals submitted to the DGPs’ Central Ethics Committee. During the application process, researchers are required to provide information on data availability and reuse. This presentation outlines the experiences gained with this concept to date, describes its impact on researchers’ data-sharing behaviour, and highlights common mistakes when completing the relevant form. Finally, we discuss the applicability and usefulness of this approach for other disciplines.

        To the slides: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19258808 

        29 April 2026: Ethics and social risk assessment for secondary use of sensitive data

          Prof. Dr. Silke Schicktanz, University Medical Center Göttingen & Prof. Dr. Rainer Mühlhoff, Osnabrück University

          16:00 – 17:00 h

          Secondary misuse of medical data and AI models arises when tools developed for clinical or research purposes are repurposed in different, potentially harmful contexts. Openly shared, anonymized datasets and models can enable uses such as profiling, risk scoring or surveillance that fall outside their original intent and that potentially affect target individuals not in the training data. This talk frames such misuse as a significant downstream risk in open data and open AI, especially in the context of medical data. The presentation invites discussion on how medical research governance could better account for such harmful secondary uses while preserving openness.
          10 June 2026: CARE Principles

            Dr. Josef Jeschke, University and State Library of Saxony-Anhalt Halle

            16:00 – 17:00 h

            How to CARE in the Humanities?
            Who owns cultural heritage? Who has authority over it? Who is the data owner of digitized cultural heritage? The CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance address these questions and aim to ensure Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, and Ethics.
            In the humanities, “data” includes digitized and born-digital texts and objects, oral histories, and cultural artifacts used for research.
            Without prioritizing CARE, FAIR workflows risk unintentionally reproducing colonial dynamics. Therefore, CARE should be embedded at the outset of workflows to ensure that subsequent FAIR activities respect community sovereignty.
            This presentation will explore the challenges of applying CARE principles in the humanities and discuss the model of the Informed CARE Data Steward.

            1 July 2026: Dark Data - when your data is lost and you don't even know

              Dr.-Ing. Björn Schembera, University of Stuttgart

              16:00 – 17:00 h

              Dark data refers to all data that is, among other features, undocumented, unavailable, hidden, unstructured, biased or erroneous. Leading analysts estimate that up to 80% of all data worldwide can be considered dark. Dark data can create economic, environmental, epistemic, ethical and legal challenges for data management and the reproducibility of research data. The presentation will introduce the characteristics and implications of dark data in science with a focus on ethics.
              7 October 2026: Sociology and Ethics of Quantification

                Prof. Walter Radermacher, LMU Munich

                16:00 – 17:00 h

                Taking responsibility in times of AI, crisis and the fight for societal facts.

                1. Trustworthy, high-quality facts derived from research and statistics are of fundamental importance to public discourse. This requires two things: responsible behaviour from those who produce the facts and recognition of, and respect for, their integrity and independence from those who use them, particularly in politics.
                2. AI is changing how knowledge is produced and consumed. If statistics and administrative data are not machine-readable and semantically clear, AI systems will use weaker, less reliable sources instead.
                3. AI needs an epistemic backbone. Reliable, well-governed data and metadata ensure that AI outputs are grounded in shared facts rather than probabilistic narratives.
                4. Public statistics provide this backbone by combining methodological rigour, transparency and public accountability.
                5. Power must remain distributed and democratically governed.

                4 November 2026: Hidden choices in data curation

                  Nico Formanek, High-performance Computing Center Stuttgart

                  16:00 – 17:00 h

                  Hidden choices in software design have been discussed since the inception of computer ethics. Similar choices in data curation have been given less focus, perhaps because data was always taken as a given. Obviously choices in data curation affect the performance and outcome of any inference as well. If such choices are not made consciously by the curator (hiddenness), then it will be hard to assess their impacts and assign responsibility. This talk will discuss cases of hiddenness in data curation and suggest some possible mitigation strategies.
                  2 December 2026: Creating ethics applications for data-use projects efficiently: Practical support for researchers through eTIC+

                    Dr. Sonja Mathes, TU Munich

                    16:00 – 17:00 h

                    The requirements for ethics applications are as varied as the underlying research and data usage projects themselves. At the same time, researchers face the challenge of producing numerous documents – all of which must be coordinated in terms of content – in a way that is comprehensive, consistent and clear.

                    eTIC+ is a digital support tool that intuitively guides researchers through the application process and enables the simultaneous creation of the necessary study documents. This helps to reduce inconsistencies, allows recurring content to be incorporated in a structured manner, and simplifies the process right up to submission to the ethics committee.

                    Data usage projects present a unique challenge due to their specific methodological, data protection and ethical requirements, and therefore require tailor-made solutions. Through GeMTeX, a project of the Medical Informatics Initiative, a large German clinical text corpus was annotated and prepared as an AI training corpus. Using this corpus as a model, a template was developed in collaboration between NFDI4Health and eTIC+ to help AI users – particularly those who do not regularly apply for health data – to work together in a structured and efficient manner on the requirements for the ethics application and the data application. This talk will present a practical example and demonstrate how similar, tailor-made templates can support data usage projects.

                    Link to Zoom video conference (no registration required)

                    We are open for suggestions on how the webinar series may continue beyond these dates.

                    Feel free to contact us:

                    • Vasilka Paunova
                      vasilka.paunova(at)uni-mannheim.de (Speaker NFDI-ELSA)
                    • Thomas Richter
                      thomas.richter(at)hs-fulda.de (coordinator WG Ethics)