Our aim is to make the processing of applications as transparent and plannable as possible for applicants. The prerequisite for the shortest possible processing time is that the application documents are complete and submitted on time. 

The documents must be submitted no later than 14 days prior to the respective meeting date, so that the study can be assessed at that meeting. Committee meetings take place every 14 days. You will find the date of the next meeting under the menu item meeting dates.

Please note that with an especially high number of applications, a formally complete application submitted on time (14 days prior to a meeting) might possibly only be discussed during a later meeting. If the assessment is necessary at a certain meeting, please contact the office in advance.

If no additional documents need to be submitted, the total processing will take a maximum of 35 days as a rule (see upper process in the diagram above). The documents will be checked for completeness prior to the assessment of the study as part of a committee meeting. You will receive confirmation that the documents are complete within 10 days, and the final assessment of the committee will be available after a total processing time of 35 days, unless a (content-related) revised submission is required with additional information and/or documents. 

If you need to submit additional documents, the total processing time will be 60 days (see lower process in the diagram above).  If the committee requires additional information and/or documents prior to the final assessment, you will receive a request for a (content-related) revised submission after 35 days. After the receipt of the revised documents within the time limit of 12 days, the documents will be reviewed and the final assessment will be consolidated, which will take an additional 13 days, as a rule. 

Please note that the deadlines mentioned are a self-imposed obligation on the part of the Ethics Committee. Under certain circumstances, e.g., in the event of a very high volume of applications, these deadlines may be exceeded.