Ethics Committee for Research

As established by the University Code of Ethics and Conduct, adopted by Rectoral Decree no. 245/2025, the Ethics Committee for Research is responsible for providing, upon request, assessments to ensure that research activities are conducted in accordance with the ethical principles set forth by international, european, and national regulations, as well as by the University Statute and the Code itself.

The Ethics Committee is the new name of the former "Ethics Commission for Research", established by Rectoral Decree no. 449/2016, which was already tasked with issuing assessments on ethics and research integrity, as defined at the supranational level by The European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity.

The Committee is competent to assess, from an ethical standpoint, research studies that do not involve clinical trials or that do not otherwise fall under the responsibility of the Regional Ethics Committees for Clinical Trials.

The Committee is a representative body of the five disciplinary areas to which the University Departments belong and is composed as follows:

• Health Sciences: Chiara Lorini and Fabio Giovanelli  
• Social Sciences: Carlo Botrugno
• Physical Sciences: Ersilia Lucenteforte
• Engineering: Giovanni Savino and Caterina Contini
• Humanities:  Matteo Galletti (coordinator) e Camilla Matera

Requests for ethical review may only be submitted by tenured academic staff and must be sent by email by the principal investigator to comitato.etico(AT)unifi.it, using the forms available in the Intranet (section > Naviga per tema > Ricerca > Comitato Etico per la Ricerca).

• Statute of the University of Florence, Article 3 | Statuto dell'Università di Firenze, art. 3
• Code of Ethics and Conduct Codice Etico e di Comportamento
• Linee guida sulle misure e strategie per la protezione dei minori nella ricerca scientifica
• (available on the Statuto e normativa webpage - in Italian)