Ethics appraisal procedure in 79,670 Marie Skłodowska-Curie proposals from the entire European HORIZON 2020 research and innovation program (2014–2020): A retrospective analysis

INTRODUCTION: Horizon 2020 was the most significant EU Research and Innovation programme ever implemented and included the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA). Proposals submitted to the MSCA actions awere subject to the Ethics Appraisal Procedure. In this work we explored the ethics appraisal procedure in MSCA H2020. METHODS: Using a retrospective analysis of pooled anonymized data, we explored the ethics appraisal procedure on proposals submitted to Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) during the entire Horizon 2020 program period (N = 79,670). RESULTS: Our results showed that one of the most frequently identified ethics categories was Data protection. We also detected slight differences between applicants’ and the ethics reviewers’ awareness of ethical issues. Trajectory analysis of all ethics screened proposals appearing on main lists showed that a minimal portion of all screened submissions required additional ethics checks in the project implementation phase. CONCLUSION: Personal data protection is one of the most represented ethics categories indicated among MSCA actions which exhaust ethics assessment efforts and may lead to “overkills” in ethics requirements. Excluding the majority of personal data protection assessment from the ethics assessment, except for parts which are directly related to ethics like “Informed consent procedures”, might be necessary in the future. A gap in understanding of ethics issues between applicants and reviewers’ points to the necessity to further educate researchers on research ethics issues.