If your proposed study involves working with human participants or identifiable personal data, it will require review and approval by a Research Ethics Committee (REC) before any data collection activities can take place. You may also be directed to seek REC approval if the nature of your project raises other ethical or reputational concerns.
If your research involves patients or service users in health or social care organisations, and/or human tissue, it will need approval from an NHS REC; check Getting started with ethical reviews for more details.
If your research involves NHS staff or facilities, but not patients, service users or human tissue, it may need HRA approval in addition to REC review; check Getting started with ethical reviews for more details.
Projects should generally only be reviewed by a single REC, so if you apply to University REC review you will not need any other Research Ethics review (other than in exceptional circumstances, such as a funder requiring review according to their own process). If you are participating in a project that has been ethically reviewed by another organisation, your University REC will require evidence of a favourable ethical review from that organisation, but will not conduct an additional review.
All University RECs report to the University Ethics of Research Committee in accordance with the University's Ethics of Research Policy and Procedure (PDF, 195kB).
The Research Governance Team are pleased to announce the launch of a new online ethics submission and review system for use by staff and student researchers involved in human participant research.
The Online Research Ethics Management System (OREMS) will improve the ethics submission process for our staff and student research community as well as the ethics review process for our internal Research Ethics Committees (RECs).
Read the phased implementation plan for details on the roll out to each faculty.
Each committee has their own structure, processes and meeting schedule. For timelines, please refer to the pages of your faculty Committee.
University RECs are managed by their relevant faculty. You can find more information on the faculty pages in the Faculty Research Ethics Officers table.
The table also lists each faculty's appointed Faculty Research Ethics Officer, who can provide further information and guidance, as required.
| Faculty | Officer |
|---|---|
| Arts | Professor Marianne Ailes |
| Life Sciences and Science | Dr Lindsay Nicholson |
| Engineering | Dr Nikolai Bode |
| Health Sciences | Dr Allison Fulford |
| Health Sciences Student Research Ethics Committee | Dr Patricia Neville |
| Social Sciences and Law | Dr Anita Mangan |
