Research permits

All studies, development projects and theses that involve collecting or processing personal data require a research permit. The study must fulfil the requirements in terms of research ethics. Employees of the wellbeing services county must also apply for a research permit as researchers.

Before applying for a permit, the applicant must contact the unit, which the study concerns. This is to ensure that conducting the study is possible in practice. The contact person of the study is the wellbeing services county’s representative in the study. The applicant cannot be the contact person of the study. The educational institute of the student is in charge of directing the contents of the study.

• Contact the unit, which the study concerns before submitting the research permit application.
• If the study is a register study and the research data are to be extracted from the client and patient information systems, please contact the Unit for Knowledge Management (tietopyynnot@luvn.fi) before submitting the research permit application.
• The collection of data can start only after the research permit has been granted.
• The person in charge of the research material register ensures in all personal data processing phases that the integrity of the data subject is not unnecessarily compromised. For the study, this means, for example, that no personal identifiers are collected needlessly.
• Incomplete applications or missing documents delay the processing.

The research permit application must always include a project overview. If the personnel or clients are interviewed, the research permit application must include, in addition to the project overview, a consent form template, an interview structure or questionnaire as well as a notice or notices about the study. If personal data is processed in the study, the documents must include a privacy notice for the research register or another report on the processing of personal data for the data subject.

Everyone processing personal data or confidential research material must commit to not using the information they receive to the detriment of the subject of the study or their relatives and to not disclosing the data to third parties. The application, in which the commitment is made, must be signed before submitting.

We process research permit applications in the order in which they are received. A prerequisite for the processing of the application is that the required documents have been included and that the application form has been carefully filled in. The processing of the research permit application may take up to 15 working days. The decision is sent to the applicant online.

We will not process research permits between 19.12.2025 and 06.01.2026.

Submitting a research permit application requires strong identification.

Research permit application(external link)

When the study has been completed, a link to the completed study report or its location data must be sent to tutkimusluvat@luvn.fi. Please also include information of the destruction of a possible research register.