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Article History

Received: 11 May 2020

Accepted: 30 September 2020

First Online: 7 October 2020

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: Ethics approval was not deemed necessary in any of the six countries according to national regulations NL: the ‘Medical Research Involving Human Subjects Act’ (WMO, 1998/2020); IT: “Balduzzi Law”, n. 189/2012, art. 12, c.10 and the Ministerial Decree n. 96 /2013; SE: ‘Swedish Act concerning the Ethical Review of Research Involving Humans’ (SFS:2003:460, 3–5§§); CH: The Human Research Act (HRA), Federal Act on Research involving Human Beings of 30 September 2011 (Status as of 1. January 2020, SR 810.30); UK: The UK Policy Framework for Health and Social Care Research (2017); SI: ‘Slovenian legislation about conducting research’ (2014, p6).Participants were recruited as professional, policy and research experts and were asked to contribute with their views and experiences. The project researchers considered that there was an extremely low risk that the Delphi interviews compromised the physical or psychological integrity of the participants in any way. No sensitive personal data were collected<b>.</b> All participants were recruited on a voluntary basis in accordance with international regulations and declarations and guidance documents, i.e. Declaration of Helsinki (1964, 2013); Council of Europe Convention on Human Rights and Dignity of Human Being with regard to the application of Biology and Medicine, Oviedo, (1997; Universal Declaration of Bioethics and Human Rights adopted by UNESCO’s General Conference on 19 October 2005.Written informed consent was obtained from all participants across the six countries by the project’s national research teams. The Delphi interviews were conducted after receiving the signed informed consent forms from the participants.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.