Microsoft Research
Ethics Review Program & IRB

Formed in 2013, the Microsoft Research Ethics Review Program is an internal program designed to help Microsoft teams planning to work with people and people’s data to respect and protect the rights and welfare of human participants contributing to academic research.

The program provides guidance, education, and reviews for internal Microsoft teams engaged in academic research.

The program also supports Microsoft Research’s Institutional Review Board (IRB), which has been officially registered with the U.S. Health and Human Services’ Office for Human Research Protections (opens in new tab) (OHRP) since 2017.

Dataset Reflection Questions

(As referenced in the 2025 report, “Review Framework for Clinical Research Involving Artificial Intelligence (AI) (opens in new tab)” by the MRCT Center of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard and WCG.)

The Microsoft Research Ethics Review Program & IRB and the Microsoft Technology & Research Responsible AI Program offer this list of questions, which are intended to stimulate thinking around the potential impacts of using a given dataset for research, and to steer decisions you make about either how to conduct the research or how you communicate the strengths and limitations of your findings to an intended audience.