The Universitat de València, as a public research organisation and being fully aware of its social responsibility, created in 1995 the Ethics Committee to answer effectively to the current necessities of society.

On 8th February 2013 the Royal Decree 53/2013 of 1 February was published in the BOE. It establishes the essential applicable standards to protect the animals that are used for experimentation and other scientific purposes, including teaching students. This new Royal Decree on experimentation directly affects the Ethics Committee because the ethics sub-committees of other institutions lose their competence to assess and pass projects that include animal research. The competences to assess the projects have been assumed since August 2013 by the Authorized Bodies for Project Assessment. They are organisms that directly depend on the competent authority.

The CEBA (Ethics Committee for Animal Welfare) of the Universitat de València is the Authorized Body of the Department of Agriculture of the Valencian Community to assess the experimentation with animals.

• Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. Sede Electrónica. Bodies authorized for assessing projects that include animal testing (art. 43.3 of R.D. 53/2013 of the 1 February).

It has two objectives. On the one hand, it guarantees that the researching activity is conducted within an ethical, safe and legal framework. On the other hand, it improves the quality of the science researched in the UV.  Additionally, the Authorised Body is in constant contact with researchers.

In agreement with the current legal requirements, the Committee controls that the researchers have access to the necessary education courses so that they can fulfil the legal requirements and have the proper professional development within a complex legal and ethical framework.

The regulation is contained in different financing announcements for research. It demands that the projects that involve researching with human beings, animals, human biological samples or use genetically modified organisms must not only fulfil all the requirements established by the Law, but they shall count on the explicit authorisation of the accredited Ethical Committee.