Ethics Approval for Research Students and Staff

All independent research undertaken by research students or staff, whether primary (involving fieldwork with human beings) or secondary (involving work which draws on already published sources), requires ethical approval.

Ethics Committees

Every Research Institute has an Ethics Committee which deals with applications for ethical approval. Proposals must be submitted to and approved by the ethics committee before fieldwork or any data collection can commence.

*This does not include research undertaken on behalf of the University as part of an administrative role, for example looking at processes at other universities.

All PhD and Masters by Research Students should submit a Research Ethics Scrutiny form which can be downloaded from the RGS BREO Community page (login required)

All Research staff should submit a Research Ethics Application (RA1) - DOC 46.5 KB to the relevant Institute / Faculty Ethics Committee for approval.

The Research Institute Ethics Committees are overseen by the University Research Ethics Committee (UREC).

UREC documents

Please refer to the following documentation produced by UREC:

• The Concordat to Support Research Integrity
• Research Ethics policy - PDF 261.0 KB