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Faculty of Health Sciences Research Ethics Committee

Overview

All research with impact has an ethical dimension and all researchers should reflect on the implications of their work, not just in terms of human (and animal) welfare and dignity, but also the social and cultural impact of their research. All research should be undertaken with cognisance of the Trinity College Guidelines for Good Research Practice.

Research involving humans and animals will require ethical review, however, other types of research may often have ethical considerations that should be addressed. In order to provide efficient and timely ethical review it has been agreed that all Schools/Units must have a research ethics approval policy in place. Schools/Units may use their own Research Ethics Committee (REC), use another School/Unit's REC or a Faculty REC.

There will be two levels of REC; Level 1 RECs will have the power to review and approve "low risk" research, while Level 2 RECs will be concerned with "high risk" research. Membership of each type of committee will be commensurate with the level of risk. Full details of the types of research associated with each level of REC can be found in the document, Criteria for Research Ethics Committees (2014).

Applicants should be aware that there is a limit to the number of studies that can be reviewed at each REC meeting and an application may NOT be considered at the next meeting if capacity has already been reached even if the application has been submitted before the deadline.

Timeline: Applicants should allow a minimum of 3 months from submission to receiving a final notification. 

Research involving hospital patients must always be approved by that hospital's research ethics review procedures.

Trinity College Dublin School / Unit	REC Details	Contact Details
School of Dental Science	Level I	Website
School of Medicine	Level I	Website
School of Nursing & Midwifery	Level I	Website
School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences	Level I	Website
Faculty of Health Sciences	Level II	ethicscommittee@tcd.ie
St James's Hospital / Tallaght Hospital, Research Ethics Committee (JREC)	Level II	Dr. Sadhbh O’Neill or Research Ethics

Choosing the Right Committee

All research involving animals must be referred to the Animal Research Ethics Committee.

All research involving hospital patients, patients' relatives and medical records must be approved by that hospital research ethics review procedures. Such research will also require approval following this from the appropriate Trinity College REC, unless that hospital REC is the Joint SJH/AMNCH REC (JREC).

All Level I research should be referred to your school's Level I committee, unless you believe another REC is more appropriate for your study.

If your school does not have a Level I committee, you may submit your Level I application to the Faculty of Health Sciences REC.

All level II research should be referred to your Faculty REC, unless you believe another Level II REC is more appropriate for your study.

If your faculty does not have a Level II REC, you may submit your Level II application to the Faculty of Health Sciences REC.

EXISTING projects - all amendment requests and reports relating to projects previously approved by the Faculty of Health Sciences REC must continue to be submitted to this committee.

Applications to Faculty of Health Science Research Ethics Committee

Step 1 Download the following templates. You must complete all of the below documents.

1. Ethics Application Form Level II Faculty of Health Sciences (Word Doc 372KB)
2. Data Protection Impact Assessment (Research) (Word Doc 325KB)
3. Participant Information Leaflet (Word Doc 268KB)
4. Explicit Consent Checklist (Word Doc 60KB)
5. Consent Form

Step 2 Submit all completed templates to ethicscommittee@tcd.ie by 5.00pm on the published deadline below; late applications will not be accepted. The soft copy must be one merged document.

Please note: all queries must be addressed to the Faculty Ethics Committee email account: ethicscommittee@tcd.ie

GDPR Compliance

For further information on GDPR compliance and the Health Research Regulations, please see here.

For further information on the Health Research Consent Declaration Committee (HRCDC), please see here.

Schedule of Faculty of Health Sciences REC Meetings 2019-20

Last date for receipt of Ethics Applications (hard & soft copies) or Ethics Amendment Requests	Date of Ethics Committee Meeting
Friday 6th September 2019	Tuesday 24th September 2019
Friday 4th October 2019	Tuesday 29th October 2019
Friday 8th November 2019	Tuesday 26th November 2019
Friday 6th December 2019	Tuesday 17th December 2019
Friday 10th January 2020	Tuesday 28th January 2020
Friday 7th February 2020	Tuesday 25th February 2020
Friday 6th March 2020	Tuesday 31st March 2020
Friday3rd April 2020	Tuesday 28th April 2020
Friday 8th May 2020	Tuesday 26th May 2020
Friday 5th June 2020	Tuesday 23rd June 2020

Note: The maximum number of applications to be reviewed in a calendar month by the Faculty REC is 10. In the event that we receive more than 10 applications in one month, priority will be given to undergraduate and taught post-graduate programmes.