Ethics

This is the route for you if:

• You are undertaking a social work/social care project AND if:
  1. The research involves withdrawing standard care
  2. AND/OR: The research involves NHS patients or people who use services as research participants.
  3. AND/OR: The research is a social care research project funded by the Department of Health (DH) in England.
  4. AND/OR: There is a legal requirement for REC review of the research (e.g. under the Mental Capacity Act). (taken from http://www.scie.org.uk/research/ethics-committee/faqs.asp)
• You are undertaking a project involving clinical patients (apart from M80 single case studies)
• You are undertaking research within a Local Authority

This is NOT the route for you if:

1. You are undertaking research other than the NHS and your project doesn’t fall under the criteria outlined above
2. If you apply to a Research Ethics Committee through IRAS and they tell you that you don’t need ethical approval. You would then need to go through Route Two (below)

IRAS is a single, online application system for applying for the permissions and approvals for health and social care / community care research in the UK. For further information on what constitutes ‘Research’ and whether you need NHS/REC Ethics approval, please visit the Health Research Authority (HRA) web site for further information and to submit your query via the Tool Kit. 

Process for applying through IRAS

1. Register with IRAS at https://www.myresearchproject.org.uk/
2. Remember that you are the principal investigator in this instance. Please only add your Director of Studies (1st supervisor)  as your supervisor – if you add more than one supervisor they all have to sign the form before you can submit it so this will delay the process
3. When completing the form, make full use of the green information icons. Many of your questions will be answered if you click on these icons without having to wait for other people to respond to your queries!

Halfway through the form, it will ask you for an Indemnity Certificate.

For Essex validated doctoral programmes, you will require the Tavistock Indemnity Certificate of Insurance and possibly the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST) confirmation. The Sponsor details are: Elisa Reyes Simpson, Director of Education & Training / Dean of Postgraduate Studies. The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. 120 Belsize Lane, London. NW3 5BA. Email: ereyes-simpson@tavi-port.ac.uk.

For UEL validated doctoral programmes, you will require either the Public Liability and/or Employer Liability certificates. For UEL Sponsorship and contact details for IRAS application forms, please contact the UEL’s Research Ethics Committee at researchethics@uel.ac.uk. in the first instance.

Some points for consideration:

1. Your supervisor is responsible for supporting you through the process of applying for ethical approval. Please ensure that the form/application is complete and checked by your supervisor prior to submission, because if your documents are incorrect and/or incomplete this could affect your ethical approval status and/or delay the application process.
2. Once your form is ready, IRAS will automatically forward the application to your sponsor and your Research Supervisor for authorisation.
3. If you require a specific REC to consider your application, please contact IRAS to request this information. The number will be found on the application form
4. There is no need to meet a specific deadline for submission unless you have specified which REC you wish the form to go to for consideration.
5. For students study on a UEL validated programme – once you receive your ethical approval letter from the REC, you must submit your final (unconditional) ethical approval letter(s) and IRAS application form(s) to the UEL’s Research Ethics Committee at researchethics@uel.ac.uk and cc. academicquality@tavi-port.nhs.uk. UEL’s Research Ethics Committee (UREC) will then issue you with a letter which will confirm that you have approved ethical clearance to proceed with your research. The normal turnaround for receiving a UREC letter in these cases is 5 working days.
6. If you are registered on a Essex validated programme – please forward your ethical approval letter from the REC, your final (unconditional) ethical approval letter(s) and IRAS application form(s) to the Tavistock Research Ethics Committee (TREC) at academicquality@tavi-port.nhs.uk. The TREC will then issue you with a letter which will confirm that you have approved ethical clearance to proceed with your research.

You will most likely be required to submit an annual report on progress to your Research Ethics Committee. You can use the same Annual Report for submission to your Course Administrator as part of the Tavistock Annual Review process (More information about Doctoral Annual Reviews).

If you have read all of the above information and you need further advice or support with your Research Ethics Committee application through IRAS, please approach your Director of Studies (1st Supervisor) in the first instance. If they are unable to help, please use the following contacts.

• the green information icons
• appear throughout the application form and provide help and support if you click on them
• there are help numbers located at the bottom of your application form – it is advisable to call these numbers before seeking further advice or guidance
• IRAS guidance
• IRAS contacts
• IRAS FAQs

If you are unable to find the information you need from the above, please contact Emmanuel Rollings-Kamara (NRES)

This is the route for you if you are studying on a UEL validated ProfDoc programme AND if:

1. You are conducting a single case study and you are on the Professional Doctorate in Child Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (M80)
2. You are conducting research within a School
3. You are conducting research within a Workplace that is not within the NHS or a Local Authority
4. Most students on the Professional Doctorate in Consultation and the Organisation (D10D) will take this route
5. You are interviewing staff within an NHS organisation or Local Authority. NB if you are carrying out any research within an NHS organisation you must gain Research & Development (R&D) Approval – see above for more information.
6. You have approached another REC (through IRAS) and they do not view it as research or do not feel that ethical approval is needed from them

This is NOT the route for you if:

1. Any of the criteria under Route One (IRAS) applies to you
2. If you are studying on an Essex validated research degree programme
3. Your supervisor or a member of your course team recommends that you apply through IRAS

Process for applying through Research, Research Degrees and Ethics Sub-Committee (RRDE) – Formally UREC

In this instance, your Director of Studies (1st Supervisor) is the Principal Investigator

• The RRDE Application Form and Guidance Documents, and the Request for Expedited Ethical Review 

can be found here.

1. Get the form hand-signed by your Director of studies, yourself and the Dean of School. The Dean of School is Brian Rock. Please contact Academic Quality to get his signature on the form.
2. Please ensure the form is fully completed and checked by your Director of Studies – if the form is incorrect and/or incomplete this could affect your ethical approval status and/or delay the application process.
3. Submit your completed, checked and signed form along with any supporting documents to researchethics@uel.ac.uk and cc.acdemicquality@tavi-port.nhs.uk by the advertised deadlines.
4. If you send any copies of signed consent forms these should be redacted to remove any information that identifies your subjects, to protect the identity of the participants. However, you must keep the fully signed consent forms as you may be required to provide these as part of the consideration.
5. If you make amendments to your project during the course of your research, you must inform RRDE immediately.
6. Receive the unconditional approval letter. Once you have this and you have your registration approval letter you may begin your research. 

For support with your RRDE application, please approach your Director of Studies (1st Supervisor) in the first instance. They are responsible for guiding and supporting you through the process.

The following information is available on the UEL RRDE webpages where you can find:

Guidance for RRDE applications

• Research involving children

Please note that students are required to use their UEL username and password to access the links. If your account has not been activated and the password changed (which would be their date of birth) the account may need to be reactivated. Students are advised to contact the UEL IT department: 0208 223 2468 for assistance on technical issues.

If you still cannot find the answer to your query please contact researchethics@uel.ac.uk.

This route is for students on:  

1. All Masters/Postgraduate Research Degree courses – submit TREC applications via TREC Moodle  site
2. Professional Doctorate students studying with the University of Essex – submit TREC applications viva MyTap

This is NOT the route for you if:

1. UEL validated Professional Doctorates

Process for applying through TREC

Application forms and guidance documentation can be found at the TREC Moodle site

Research and development (R&D) approval

In addition to your Research Ethics application, if you are carrying out research within an NHS organisation, you will need to gain R&D approval from each organisation prior to carrying out research there. R&D approval is not affiliated with any Research Ethics Committees and gaining ethical approval is entirely separate to the process of gaining R&D approval.

* ‘Through no fault of your own’: Your ethical application form(s) was/were fully completed to the best of your abilities and signed, checked by your supervisor and submitted to the relevant Research Ethics Committee (REC) at around the same time as (within a month of) submitting your research proposal to the Trust Research Degrees Subcommittee, and despite repeatedly trying to get a response from the REC, you still have not heard from them. Not meeting the requirements or standards of the REC where the REC has responded within a reasonable time-frame does not constitute grounds for a suspension of studies.

Where the research involves human participation (i.e. human participants, human material or human data) prior approval from a research ethics committee is mandatory. Applicants should be aware that conducting any form of research involving the above parameters without appropriate ethical approval may result in disciplinary action and/or the cancellation of the research.

• Sections 23 and 3.15h of the UEL-Tavi Research Degree Regulations
• Concordat to Support Research Integrity
• Health Research Authority (HRA) and the HRA Tool Kit. 
• IRAS
• NOCLOR Research Support
• UEL Research Ethics Committee (UREC)
• Tavistock Research Ethics Committee (TREC)
• TREC Application Form
• Field Work Risk Assessment Form