LUXEMBOURG

Research Ethics Committees

Short description of RECs system

In Luxemburg, there is only one national research ethics committee, called Comité National d'Ethique de Recherche (CNER). It provides a single opinion which is valid for all the country's investigational sites.

Networking of the CNER on the national level

The ethics committee is in contact with the national data protection commission (CNPD), which has one member attenting the national ethics committee meetings as an observer. Copies of the opinions emitted by the CNER during its meetings are then sent to the CNPD, as well as to the Competent Authority (Pharmacy and Medicines´ Division of the Ministry of Health), which gives its authorisation when it is required. On a voluntary basis, the ethics committee is also in contact with different research institutions.

REC members' training

To train its members, the CNER generally participates in national training days which are nowadays organised by the CIEC, and, when possible, members also attend international conferences organised by the EUREC network or the EFGCP for example. But a lot of the training occurs during the CNER’s meetings, where the members are able to continuously inform each other on various aspects of the ethical reviewal of research projects. When larger issues need to be discussed (i.e. if there is a need to define general attitudes of the committee towards new kinds of research studies, biobanking, e-consent etc., extraordinary meetings are organised, and texts from various national or foreign expert bodies on these matters are used as supporting information).