The purpose of the ethics committee is to provide ethical oversight of research-based activities conducted by staff and research students in the Institute for Sport and Physical Activity Research (ISPAR).

All research requires ethical approval regardless of whether it is funded or not. All externally funded research also requires further scrutiny by the University Research Ethics Committee (UREC).

Staff procedure

Once the Director of Institute has approved that the area of research is aligned with ISPAR's strategy, the applicant sends the following documentation to the ISPAR Ethics Chair Dr Laura Charalambous at laura.charalambous@beds.ac.uk

• Staff Ethics form
• Proposal
• Appendices (where appropriate)

The ISPAR Ethics Chair will then appoint a reviewer to scrutinise the ethical implications of the study. This will generally take 15 working days in term time.

Please allow more time for the scrutiny process where a project is funded as these timescales do not apply where UREC scrutiny is required.

Student procedure

Once the supervisor(s) have approved the submission, the student sends the following documentation to the ISPAR Ethics Chair Dr Laura Charalambous at laura.charalambous@beds.ac.uk:

• PGR Student Ethics document
• Proposal
• Appendices (where appropriate)

The ISPAR Ethics Chair will then appoint a reviewer to scrutinise the ethical implications of the study. This will generally take 15 working days in term time.

Documents

• Updated ethics documentation and assistance is available via the BREO community: Research Graduate School (PGR Student Ethics document) or via the ISPAR BREO unit (ISPAR Staff Ethics document).
• All applications must adhere to the ‘Generic Ethics Document’ guidelines, available in the BREO community: Sport and Exercise Science Laboratories Polhill and the ISPAR BREO unit.

When completing an ethics application you are advised to refer to:

• University Research Ethics Committee Ethical Procedures & Good Research Practice
• BERA ethical guidelines for Educational Research

ISPAR Ethics exemplars

We have provided basic templates for the documentation you may need in order to submit with an ethics application to ISPAR:

• ISPAR sample Participant Information sheet - DOC 36.5 KB
• ISPAR sample Participant Assent (under 18) form - DOC 29.5 KB
• ISPAR sample Participant Consent (18 and over) form - DOCX 24.7 KB

Further Information

Any queries should be sent to Dr Laura Charalambous at laura.charalambous@beds.ac.uk or ispar@beds.ac.uk