Research ethics application guidance

Application submission process 

All research ethics applications that are to be reviewed by the University of Bristol Research Ethics Committee (REC) should be submitted via the Online Research Ethics Management System (OREMS). You should be able to sign into OREMS via single sign on. 

Once you application has been reviewed by the REC, you will receive an outcome via email. For more information on the different outcomes and what they mean, click here. 

Who should complete the application? 

Although it is recommended, a project’s Principal Investigator doesn’t necessarily have to complete the online research ethics form. Instead, it can be completed and submitted by any of the following:  

• Anyone who is a part of the research team. 
• A supervisor or academic member of staff completing the form on behalf of a student. 
• For multi-organisation projects (for example, projects funded across multiple universities), only a single ethics review is required. Therefore, a researcher can complete and submit an ethics application to the University of Bristol on behalf of the whole project, so long as Bristol staff will be involved in the conduct of the study – and so long as this is acceptable to all other participating organisations.  

OREMS also has a share functionality between University of Bristol researchers, so applications can be edited and completed collaboratively.  

If the University of Bristol is the lead institution on a multi-institution project, then we recommend that you complete the ethical review here.  

As an exception to the above, for research projects that are undertaking data collection in another country, we recommend acquiring ethical approval from an institution in that country, wherever possible.  

A single ethical review from any properly constituted research ethics committee will be acceptable.