Ethical review and approval can take several weeks. It is recommended you submit your application at least two months before your research start date. Please also refer to our Research Integrity page.
Students
All students carrying out research involving human participants must obtain ethical approval beforehand. Failure to do so may result in disciplinary action.
What do I do?
Please complete the Application for Ethical Approval (Research) and send it to your dissertation supervisor. Please also include any relevant documents listed in the application form checklist (usually at least a Participant Information Sheet and Consent Form). All these documents should be sent as one electronic document if possible labelled in the format: FULL NAME, FACULTY, SUPERVISOR. You and your supervisor can contact an ethics representative for advice.
How does it get processed?
Supervisors can review and approve the ethics application at level 1 (with the exception of supervisors of doctoral students) and must report/log the approval. Supervisors will send applications deemed to be of a higher risk (and doctoral student applications) to a Faculty Ethics Representative for assessment, who may approve it at level 1 or 2. Applications deemed to be of the highest risk level (3) will be sent by the Faculty Ethics Representative to the Ethics Sub-Committee Secretary for the next Sub-Committee meeting (see deadlines below). Applicants may be invited to attend this meeting to discuss their application with the Ethics Sub-Committee. It can take several weeks for ethics applications to be reviewed.
Staff
All staff carrying out research must obtain ethical approval beforehand from an Ethics Representative (at faculty or university level) or the University Ethics Sub-Committee (if the Ethics Representative decides it should go to level 3). Failure to do so may result in disciplinary action. Please contact an Ethics Representative for advice.
Ethics Sub-Committee deadlines 2024/25 (level 3 applications)
The Ethics Sub-Committee usually meets 21 days after each deadline.
- 4th September 2024
- 2nd October 2024
- 30th October 2024
- 27th November 2024
- 18th December 2024
- 5th February 2025
- 26th February 2025
- 26th March 2025
- 23rd April 2025
- 5th June 2025
- 9th July 2025
- 6th August 2025
Downloadable Ethics Forms
Guidelines
Remember - you and your supervisor can ask an Ethics Representative for advice.