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All HLS Faculty staff and students who wish to undertake research (academic or commercial) must apply for ethical approval before commencing their research. Primary data collection may not begin until the correct ethics approval procedures have been completed and written authorisation of the proposed study has been obtained.

Note: some projects will require a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) to be completed and agreed before data collection can begin., This is a separate process from obtaining ethics approval.

To obtain ethical approval, please ensure that the study-appropriate procedures are followed (as detailed below).

Worktribe

All ethics applications must be submitted on . You will be able to access the system through the website and will be asked for your ºÚÁÏÍø single sign-on details. The new system asks a more comprehensive set of questions on your ethics application, while still being user-friendly.

Training on using the new system, in the form of videos and user guide are be available under the help menu on Worktribe and in the Digital Skills area of Blackboard.

If you have any questions please contact the team via email at worktribe.ethics@dmu.ac.uk.

All Postgraduate Research (PGR) student (MPhil, PhD) and Staff ethics submissions are reviewed by the Faculty Research Ethics Committee (FREC) review panel (reviewed by two reviewers, and moderated by the Chair or Deputy Chair).

Individual student Undergraduate/Taught Postgraduate (UG/PGT) student level studies(BA, BSc, MA, MSc) ethics submissions are reviewed at programme-level (but are escalated to FREC for medium-risk). Please refer to the ‘Guidance on Low Risk Research for UG and PGT Students’ below.

For UG/PGT Exceptional Approval Block Applications please refer to the ‘Module-level Exceptional Block Approval process’ section below.

If you believe there are no ethical implications to your research please complete a Research Ethics Screen Questions form. If you are a member of staff, please lodge your form with the HLS FREC at hlsfro@dmu.ac.uk. If you are a PGR student, please ask your supervisor email it to hlsfro@dmu.ac.uk, and also to researchstudents@dmu.ac.uk.

Please note that this screening form is under review by Research Governance.

The university’s Research Ethics Code of Practice must be read and referred to by all applicants, supervisors, module/programme leaders and reviewers when completing/assessing an ethics application.

Helpful documents

• HLS UG and PGT Ethics Submission Requirement and Guide
• HLS Ethics Resource Links
• HLS FREC Guidance for Reviewers