Privireal Home Page Privacy in Research, Ethics and Law
"examining the implementation of the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC
in relation to medical research and the role of ethics committees"

PRIVIREAL Objectives and Vital Statistics

To examine the implementation of the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC in relation to medical research and the role of ethics committees.

The objectives of the PRIVIREAL project are three-fold:

  1. To create and maintain a WEB-BASED RESOURCE providing information on how each Member State has implemented the Directive, in particular in the area of medical research. For each country the pertinent data protection laws and regulations have been provided, as well as commentaries and other background information. Reference will be made primarily to the DATA PROTECTION LAWS of our partners, but additional information of other data protection laws can be included that are not covered by this project.
  2. To examine THE ROLE OF RESEARCH REVIEW by independent ethics committees in the Member States, as regards data protection. To this end, information is being gathered on how the legislation influences ethics committees when they are reviewing research applications.
  3. To make RECOMMENDATIONS or suggestions about the implementation of the Directive in each country, and about the remit to be given to RECs to protect the research participant's rights under Directive 95/46/EC.

PRIVIREAL vital statistics:

  • Project Coordination: Mainly by Professor Deryck Beyleveld and David Townend at SIBLE, Sheffield University. Our partners in Finland and Portugal helped organise the Workshops in those countries.
  • Funding under Contract No. PL QLRT-2001-00056, by the European Commission, DG Research, Directorate E: Biotechnology, Agriculture and Food, under the FP5, Quality of Life Programme.
  • Project Type: Concerted Action.
  • Project Members: 49 individual and institutional members in 27 countries including European, New Member States and Candidate Countries.
  • Workshops: 3, aiding the writing of country reports, holding comparative discussions and keynote papers on each of the 3 stages of the project. They were held in January 2003 in Sheffield, August 2003 in Helsinki and July 2004 in Coimbra.
  • Publications: Five books will be published from the project, reporting on the three key stages. As of September 2005, three books have been published and a further two will follow.
  • Project Length: 42 months, from January 2002 until June 2005.

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