Projects that do not require authorisation

Anonymised data sets

Projects that do not require authorisation always use anonymised data sets. In other words, the analysed data can no longer be assigned to a specific person.

Right to dissent with regard to anonymisation

Donors of biological material or genetic data are informed about the anonymisation in advance. If they do not file an objection, further use for research purposes can be made of their samples or data. All persons have the option of refusing to allow any further use of their samples or data. No prior notification is necessary in the case of studies with non-genetic data.

Foregoing anonymisation

Data donors can also deliberately forego anonymisation of their data in order to benefit from any possible study findings. In that case, however, they have to participate in a study that requires authorisation, as only these types of projects are permitted to work with non-anonymised data.

Other projects that do not require authorisation

Other examples of projects that do not require authorisation include case studies on individual persons that result in no generalisable findings and studies that do not concern either diseases or basic research. Whether field reports, quality assurance projects or academic qualification works require authorisation needs to be assessed on a case-by-case basis.