Support for ethical international collaborations
Karolinska Institutet’s ethical guidelines for international collaborations are supported by a number of internal and external policy documents, regulations, guidelines, and other resources related to ethical issues. Below you will find references and links to the areas covered by the ethical guidelines.
Internal documents
Discrimination, harassment and victimization
Karolinska Institutet, in all contexts, shall strive to counter discrimination of any kind. Karolinska Institutet does not accept the victimisation of employees, doctoral students or undergraduate students. Any such incidents must be reported to the management for investigation and follow-up in accordance with applicable guidelines.
Selection in the case of student, doctoral, and post doctoral exchanges shall be based on merit without regard to gender, gender identity or gender expression, ethnicity, religion or other belief, disability, sexual orientation or age.
Equal opportunities at KI
Advice for students who feel harassed or discriminated against
Ethical review and documentation
An Ethical Review Board or an equivalent local body must approve the project before it is carried out (both animal and human research):
- In human research, patients/human subjects must not be exposed to indignity or risks that may endanger health or life
- Human research shall be based on a voluntary approach and informed consent
- In a risk/benefit analysis, the benefit for patients and human subjects must exceed the risks
- All research that takes place through international collaboration should also be able to be approved in an ethical review in Sweden
All research shall follow applicable guidelines for the planning, implementation and documentation of experimental as well as epidemiological and clinical research.
- Self assessment form for animal testing outside EU, hosted by the KI Animal Welfare body.
- Guidelines for research
- CODEX – rules and guidelines for research - previously coordinated by Swedish Research Council together with Uppsala University, now operated solely by the Centre for research ethics and bioethics Uppsala University.
Presidents' decisions (in Swedish)
Corrupt practices
Corrupt practices must not occur in any activities in which Karolinska Institutet participates. Where the suspicion of corruption arises then this must be reported to the management at Karolinska Institutet, in accordance with the applicable guidelines.
Risk assessment
A risk or safety assessment relating to both Karolinska Institutet as an institution as well as to participating students/employees shall always be conducted in the case of all forms of international collaboration. The risk assessment shall be implemented at an appropriate level within Karolinska Institutet. The risk assessment requires an active monitoring of the global environment. KI offers a tool in form of a checklist for risk assessment of international collaborations.
International documents
Discrimination, harassment and victimisation
- UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher-Education Teaching Personnel
Ethical Review and documentation
- World Medical Association Declaration of Rancho Mirage on Medical Education
- WMA International Code of Medical Ethics
- WMA Declaration of Helsinki - Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects
- WMA Declaration of Taipei - Research on Health Databases, Big Data and Biobanks
- UNESCO Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights
- UNESCO International Declaration on Human Genetic Data
- UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights