Inria COERLE applications
What is the Inria COERLE
Before conducting any experimental work that directly or indirectly involves human participants, you need to get permission by Inria's institutional review board (IRB), called the COERLE. This application process checks both the ethical aspects of your planned work as well as data protection and other legal rules. Only after you received permission from the COERLE are you allowed to start your work. For more information see the COERLE's website and the COERLE's page on Numin.
How to approach an IRB (ethics) approval
- You start by entering (but not submitting!) a COERLE application (Déposer une saisine) in the SI Coerle system. This application contains questions about both the ethical aspects of your planned work as well on data protection (the European GDPR rules) and other legal rules. This application can be entered in French or in English. Please note that some local scientific COERLE correspondents (CLCs) may have a language preference for English (see the list below). While you are certainly allowed to enter your application data in French, following a potential language preference of your CLC for English could speed up the application process. Please see the section below on useful information for further details.
- Once you filled in all the required fields, please leave the application in "Draft" status and contact your CLC about your planned experiment and send them the link to your draft application (in the form of sending them an e-mail with the link
https://sicoerle.inria.fr/saisine/show/123that you received from the SI Coerle system). - Your CLC will then review your draft application and provide you with feedback and ensure that you provided all needed information that is required for your application. Your work with the CLC to complete and finish your application. In addition, together with the CLC you figure out whether your application classifies as a fast-track application or a full application.
- Once this process is complete, the CLC will ask you to fully submit the application in the SI Coerle system. In the case the application classifies as a fast-track application, the CLC will write a report about the application to be confirmed by the president of the COERLE commitee. This is expected to happen within about a week or two (outside of vacation times). In case the application does not classify as a fast-track case, the application will be forwarded to the national COERLE committee and be discussed by them in their next meeting.
- In addition to the ethical assessment described so far, there will also be an independent legal assessment by the lawyers of your center (in particular with respect to GDPR compliance), coordinated by your Inria center's legal coordinator (responsable du Service des affaires juridiques; see the list below for contact information).
Useful information for the COERLE application
- A more detailed version of the description of the process is provided in the document "Vade-mecum du·de la déposant·e d’une saisine COERLE" (French version only; from October 2020). [todo: get an English version of this document]
- In many cases participants need to fill in a consent form for the participation in an experiment. Please use the versions provided by Inria: French version and/or English version.
- Please also check out Inria's guide for GDPR-related issues for research (can be accessed in French and in English; on Numin).
- There's also a document on Scientific experiments within Inria project-teams and insurance issues (French version only; from 2021).
- Further information on research that requires authorization from Inria's CEO and COERLE's scope of intervention (French version only; from 2019).
- Some research may or must be ethically validated by committees external to Inria. This is the case for research falling within the scope of the Jardé law on the human person, which must be submitted to a CPP, see this note from March 2017 on the subject. The list of exceptions and the procedure to be followed are explained in the authorization and COERLE scope of intervention note by the Inria CEO.
- Crowd-sourced experiments: As of today (July 2025), payments for crowd-sourced experiments via Prolific are not possible with Inria funds. Payments via funds from other institutions are still possible (provided that these institutions approve them).
The role of the local scientific COERLE correspondent (CLC; correspondant local scientifique Coerle)
- The CLC will help you with any questions you may have about your application and guide you through the process.
- In addition, the CLC provides assessments for fast-track applications or gives a comment to the national COERLE committee.
- Please see the list below of the current CLCs, depending on your Inria center.
List of local scientific COERLE correspondents (CLCs)
| Inria center | name | language preference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| University of Bordeaux | Frédéric Alexandre | first_name.last_name@inria.fr | n/a |
| University Grenoble Alpes | Cédric Lauradoux | first_name.last_name@inria.fr | n/a |
| University of Lille | Thomas Pietrzak | first_name.last_name@univ-lille.fr | n/a |
| Lyon | Jan-Michael Rye | first_name.last_name@inria.fr | n/a |
| Université de Lorraine/Nancy | Lucca Hirschi | first_name.last_name@inria.fr | n/a |
| Paris | Adrien Coulet | first_name.last_name@inria.fr | n/a |
| Rennes University | Jacques Nicolas | first_name.last_name@inria.fr | n/a |
| Université Côte d’Azur/Sophia Antipolis | Arnaud Legout | first_name.last_name@inria.fr | n/a |
| Saclay | Tobias Isenberg | first_name.last_name@inria.fr | English |
| Chile |
List of local legal correspondents
[todo: link to this information elsewhere?]
| Inria center | name | |
|---|---|---|
| University of Bordeaux | ||
| University Grenoble Alpes | ||
| University of Lille | ||
| Lyon | ||
| Université de Lorraine | ||
| Paris | ||
| Rennes University | ||
| Université Côte d’Azur/Sophia Antipolis | ||
| Saclay | Sandrine Capelle | first_name.last_name@inria.fr |
| Chile |
What to do if you want to change an existing COERLE application that has not yet been decided
Please contact the president of the COERLE by e-mail, she or he can change the status in the SI Coerle system.
What to do if you want to change/amend an existing COERLE application that already has been approved
[todo: to be filled in/specified]
Document version; mistakes or omissions in this document
This document was last changed in July 2025. If you happen to find mistakes in this document or you are missing any relevant information, please contact Tobias Isenberg (first_name.last_name@inria.fr) and ask him to address these points.