info@climair-project.eu
Before any clinical work begins, every ClimAIr study must have the right ethical and administrative approvals. A new report explains how the project meets these standards across all participating countries.
The latest ethics report from the ClimAIr project describes the administrative and ethical authorisations required to initiate the project’s clinical and experimental activities, in accordance with the highest standards of research integrity.
It aims to ensure the project’s clinical research activities and use of health-related information are carried out responsibly and lawfully, with full respect for participants’ rights across all countries involved.
The report’s central objective is to verify that the clinical settings participating in ClimAIr meet the ethical and administrative conditions required for participation in the project. This provides a practical basis for research that will explore environmental and health relationships using advanced data-driven methods, while ensuring that scientific progress is not achieved at the expense of privacy, safety, fairness, or human dignity.
To achieve this, ClimAIr has translated established international and European principles into a common implementation framework for its participating clinical partners. The approach draws on recognized standards for research integrity, biomedical ethics, data protection and trustworthy artificial intelligence. It places particular emphasis on informed consent, independent ethical review, responsible handling of sensitive health information, data minimisation, pseudonymisation, transparency and accountability. It also recognises that health research involving biological materials and cross-border collaboration must satisfy both shared European principles and applicable national requirements.
A dedicated governance structure supports this work. The project’s Ethical Advisory Board provides a forum to review ethics-sensitive issues, align practices across partners, and advise on solutions where different legal or institutional requirements apply. The project has also adopted a common ethical baseline: clinical partners must secure informed consent from participants and obtain approval for the study protocol from an independent ethics body or a committee formally accredited by a competent public authority.
The report confirms that participating clinical centers met this ethical approval requirement at the time of reporting. It also documents how the consortium addressed an identified compliance issue through its governance procedures. This expresses a commitment not only to setting high standards, but also to applying them consistently when problems emerge. By excluding activities that did not meet the agreed independent-review standard, the project protects participants, partner organisations and the reliability of its future research outputs.
In conclusion, the report establishes a clear ethical and legal basis for ClimAIr’s clinical research activities. It shows that responsible governance, independent oversight, and strong safeguards for personal data are key to the project’s work to develop reliable, socially responsible AI-supported evidence on air quality and respiratory health.