"""The experiments are so sensitive that the National Institutes of Health has imposed a moratorium on funding them while officials explore the ethical issues t

"""The experiments are so sensitive that the National Institutes of Health has imposed a moratorium on funding them while officials explore the ethical issues they raise.""" How does this work in the US? Sounds like they talked about the idea and NIH reacted with a moratorium until ethics questions are considered. I have to submit research to an ethics panel before I get funding. Not everything but pretty much everything in medicine or involving humans and possibly animals but I've never ventured into that realm. Even when writing a proposal in say human-computer interaction there's always a need to have all tests/evaluations involving human subjects approved by an ethics board first. It's typically a short description and checklist a la "will the subjects be compensated", "will the subjects be informed about the research agenda" etc. It's good form but I don't think you'll get penalized if you do a quick mockup-test with some people but formally/theoretically the requirement is there.