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Ethics Committee

Introduction

New ethical review arrangements for research involving human subjects is being introduced in Northern Ireland to comply with the requirements of the European Union Directive on Clinical Trials as transposed by the UK Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations 2004. In addition, some funding bodies require ethical approval for all their projects, whilst universities require ethical approval of all research involving human participants. Queen's University has established Research Governance guidelines and Research Ethics Committees at University and School levels.

The School of History and Anthropology takes serious its obligation to ensure that all research carried out under its aegis adheres to the highest ethical standards. For this purpose the School Research Ethics Committee (SREC) was established.

Committee Members

The School Research Ethics Committee (SREC) is composed of a representative from each Unit in the School, a chair, and a member from another School. The current composition of the SREC is:

Paulo Sousa (Chair): Institute of Cognition and Culture; email: p.sousa@qub.ac.uk phone +1170

Dominic Bryan: Institute of Irish Studies; email: d.bryan@qub.ac.uk; phone +3232

Keith Jeffery: History; email: k.jeffery@qub.ac.uk ; phone +3426

Maruska Svasek: Anthropology; email: m.svasek@qub.ac.uk ; phone +3879

Frances Mercer: History and Anthropology (School Manager); email: f.mercer@qub.ac.uk; phone +3434

Keith Breen (Non-School Representative): School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy; email k.breen@qub.ac.uk; phone +3349

 

Remit of the Committee

The remit of the Committee is to ensure that all research carried by students and staff under the auspices of the School of History & Anthropology, has undergone ethical scrutiny and has gained approval prior to commencement.

Protocols for the use of human subjects in research, whether funded internally or externally, must be approved by the SREC prior to the implementation of the research. Violation of this procedure may be interpreted as scientific misconduct and can result in the loss of funding from the sponsoring agency. (See Research Policy Office http://www.qub.ac.uk/rrs/webpages/research-governance.htm)

The researcher should submit the Application to Conduct Research Form (with all additional documents specified by this Form) to the SREC for approval. (The Application to Conduct Research From and the Procedures for Application is available on sharepoint).

Queen’s Guides

Before completing the Application to Conduct Research Form, researchers are also advised to read the following good-practice guides from Queen’s University:

Queen’s Research Governance: http://www.qub.ac.uk/directorates/ResearchEnterprise/ResearchGovernance/