Frequently asked questions
Yes, you can, but additional considerations will need to be made. For children aged 16 and under, parental or guardian consent should be sought for their child to take part in any research. As such, the consent form and participant information sheet should be addressed to the parents or their guardian. We would also usually recommend also creating an assent
form for the child. This should be written and formatted in an age-appropriate way and is a way of proactively involving the child in the decision-making process.
Children aged 16 and 17 are able to consent for themselves, however, we would recommend that parents/guardians are informed of their child’s involvement in the research unless it would adversely affect participation. For example, 16-year-olds may be reluctant to take part in a study concerning vaping if it would make their parents aware that they vape.
Further Guidance:
If you have a legitimate need to use an unapproved app or platform for research purposes, and there are no other options available, then contact the Information Compliance Team in the Secretary's Office (data-protection@bristol.ac.uk) who can assess it on an individual case basis against the University’s legal requirements. Input from IT Services may be needed, as well as the need for a Data Protection Impact Assessment.
We encourage a local ethical review where possible, and we would not look to undertake a dual ethical review. We are willing to accept the ethics opinion from the local REC in another country. As such you will not need a second ethical review and approval from the University of Bristol Research Ethics Committee (REC).
However, we do need to register the ethics application and confirmation of approval from the local Research Ethics Committee (REC) in another country for our records. This is a straightforward, light touch process.
To do so, please start a new research ethics application on our Online Research Ethics Management System (OREMS): https://orems.bristol.ac.uk
All that is needed is for the short Faculty information section on page one to be completed and at the bottom, answer ‘Yes’ to the question to indicate that 'your research has or will be submitted to another research ethics committee'.
You will then be prompted to upload the approved ethics application study documents as well as a copy of the favourable ethics opinion from the local REC. Once you have done this, click through to the next page where you can fill out the submission declaration, sign, and submit.
Whether your project requires an ethical review will depend on how and for what purpose you intend to use the data.
If the data you intend to collect is solely to be used an internal evaluation of a teaching programme rather than as novel research, and the data will not be used for research purposes, then a formal research ethics review would not be required. However, if you wish to publish the data in an educational evaluation publication, you will need to ensure you adhere to good ethical principles and ensure that you have appropriate informed consent for that data to be submitted for possible publication.
If the data is to be used to underpin research finding or collected as part of a research project, then a research ethics review would be required.
Research projects must adhere to the University of Bristol’s Research Governance and Integrity Policies. These policies include honesty, integrity, co-operation, accountability, and health and safety, as it is important to protect the rights, dignity, health, safety and privacy of everyone involved, including the research team.
Formal ethics approval is not required for public engagement and research-related activities. However, we would still expect that good ethical principles (see forthcoming SharePoint guidance page, UoB access required) are adhered to throughout the project e.g.:
- Voluntary participation
- Consent regarding what the project involves
- How participants’ opinions could inform future research
- Safety and care for everyone involved
- Transparency and accountability
- Equity and inclusion
- Balanced distribution of power among partners in the study
- Belief in collaborative and participatory research
- Humility and co-learning
- Respect for diversity, tolerance and conflict resolution
- Attention to cultural sensitivity
- Commitment to personal and professional responsibilities
We recommend referring to this RRI & Responsible Engagement page and NCCPE guide (which is written for community based participatory research ethics, but which covers many ethical considerations that are also relevant to activities such as co-design, co-production, participatory research, involvement and engagement). There are still code of conducts and legal obligations for example, for data that contains information on living, identifiable people, GDPR and the 2018 Data Protection Act will apply or for individual researchers working on activities refer to the University of Bristol’s Lone Working Policy.
When undertaking international travel for University-related activities, please ensure you follow these steps:
- Request approval from your Head of School if the trip will take place during term time.
- Buy business travel via the Clarity portal - clarity must be used for all work costings and bookings unless they do not provide the service, or you are booking discounted accommodation as part of a conference package. Register for a Clarity profile as soon as possible to avoid delays.
- Apply for free University Business Travel Insurance - this must be done for every trip, even if you have travelled before.
- Gain formal approval for international travel - following the appropriate internal procedures for your faculty or department.
Always plan in advance to allow time for approvals and insurance to be processed.
Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) is not a method of conducting research involving individuals as research participants or potential recruits without going through appropriate ethical and governance procedures. It is appropriate to ask people involved in PPI events to comment on their experiences of or views on your research, but not on their own health, condition, or personal situations. In other words, PPI events cannot be used to collect research data relating to the participants.
You can publish outputs from PPI events, but it must be clear that you are not publishing the results of research.
Do I need ethical approval to carry out PPI? No. As referenced in the PPI Ignite Network statement: "Approval from a research ethics committee is not required for public and patient involvement (PPI) in the idea generation, planning, design, interpretation of findings, or dissemination stages of research."
Can we grant a retrospective ethics opinion for data already collected? No. As per our ethics of research policy and procedure, we cannot grant retrospective ethics approval.
You don't need ethical approval to carry out PPI, as referenced in the PPI Ignite Network statement:
"Approval from a research ethics committee is not required for public and patient involvement (PPI) in the idea generation, planning, design, interpretation of findings, or dissemination stages of research."
No. As per our ethics of research policy and procedure, we cannot grant retrospective ethics approval. If you undertaken research data collection without receiving a favourable ethical opinion, then please contact research-governance@bristol.ac.uk.
The length of time it takes to complete the research ethics review process depends on a number of factors, i.e. how complete an ethics application is at the point of submission, the ethical complexity of your research, and the speed at which you can respond if the committee requests additional information or changes.
Once your ethics application has been submitted it will first be validated for completeness. If any required documentation is missing, your ethics application will be returned to you, and you will need to provide any requested documentation and resubmit your ethics application for review. Once validated, a member of the Research Governance Team will facilitate an ethical review by a Research Ethics Committee. The committee will review your ethics applications, and once a quorate number of reviews have been received issue a decision.
No. To ensure a streamlined research ethics review process, you should submit your research ethics application once your study documents have been completed. If needed, the ethics committee will work with you to edit your documents prior to issuing a favourable ethical opinion. If any changes to your study documents are required, after a favourable ethical opinion has been issued, this can be managed through the amendment submission process.
Submitting incomplete study documents will likely delay the overall ethical review process due to the requirement for the relevant ethics committee to review and issue an opinion on the latest version of your study documents.
Applicants are asked to describe any research data they intend to create, how data will be stored during the lifetime of a project and how valuable data will be shared after the project has ended. Applicants are also asked to say how much research data management will cost.
Some funders will expect a brief outline data management plan to be submitted with a grant application and a more detailed plan to be developed after funding is secured.
DMPonline is a platform for creating data management plans and provides access to templates for all the major UK and EU funding bodies. To ask for a review of your data management plan (DMP), add data-bris@bristol.ac.uk as an editor (available under the 'Share' tab). You can also download a copy of your DMP and email it to data-bris@bristol.ac.uk.
For further information see our guides to: