The Research Ethics Committee (CER) was established to provide support to researchers in reviewing and assessing research projects not regulated by law and involving the use of data from human subjects. The following are outside the remit of the CER: clinical drugs trials - regulated by Royal Decree 223/2004 of 6^th February - and biomedical research with human biological samples or which involve invasive procedures on human subjects - regulated by Act 14/2007 of 3^rd July. 

The CER acts at the request of researchers. The reason for requests is to obtain a positive report, prior to the start of the study, required by the funding institution for the project or, in anticipation of publication of the results, required by editorial committees and publication standards at scientific journals. The CER shall not report on already commenced projects or studies.

The committee's main objective is to ensure experiment designs and procedures used by researchers comply with sufficient ethical and legal principles to ensure their safety and that of participants. In any event, research involving human beings must comply with the ethical principles on human dignity, confidentiality, non-discrimination and risk/expected results proportionality. Where applicable, free, prior and informed consent must be obtained in writing from the individuals involved or their legal representatives.

The inclusion of the Data Protection Officer (DPO) on the CER enables it to verify whether the proposals are in line with data protection regulations. Researchers are responsible for their proposal being in line with laws and standards in this area and for compliance therewith during and after performance of the project. The UIB has a special section on its website pertaining to data protection. This section provides information and, where any query may arise, the Data Protection Officer (DPO) may be contacted: Caty Pou, lawyer and adviser at the UIB Legal Service (tel. no.: 971 25 97 93; caty.pou@uib.es). This procedure is even more relevant where the proposed research plans to use sensitive data in the 'special category', as defined in Article 9 of Organic Law 3/2018 of 5^th December on personal data protection and guarantee of digital rights, and in Article 9 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27^th April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data.