Louise is Head of Research Governance, Ethics and Integrity and is responsible for ensuring that the University can demonstrate compliance with legislative and good practice requirements.
Background
Louise has a HNC in Business and Finance, a BA (Hons) in Public Policy and Management, and a MSc in Primary Care and General Practice, all of which she completed through part-time study whilst also working in a number of different roles within Health and Social Care, including a medical secretary in a busy A&E department, a role in the Histopathology department, and a number of management positions, including Clinical Governance Manager in the former Green Park Healthcare Trust. In was in this last role that Louise first became acquainted with Research Governance.
After 19 years in Health and Social Care, Louise joined Queen's as Senior Policy Officer for Research Governance. After 6 years she was appointed to Head of Research Governance, an area which has seen considerable growth in legislative compliance and an increased emphasis on research integrity both on the national and global stages over the last decade.
Louise's primary degree, extensive work experience, the influence of line managers, and the development opportunities she undertook have all equipped her for her curent role in Queen’s.
Find our more about Louise's career at LinkedIn.
Current roles and responsibilities
Given the breadth of legislative requirements around research involving animals and, more recently, human participants, such as the Human Tissue Act, UK Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations, Data Protection Act, Mental Capacity Act, and recent requirements relating to the protection of national security, it has been essential that Queen's University has the appropriate Policies, Regulations, and Procedures in place to support its academic/research and professional services communities to facilitate compliance.
In addition to the legislative requirements, the sector has witnessed the growth of ethics and intergrity requirements by research funders, such as ESRC, Horizon Europe etc.
The University has had in place a Code of Conduct for Research Integrity for nearly 20 years, yet these past five years has seen the greatest prominence for the integrity agenda following publication of the Concordat to Support Research Integrity.
It is Louise's responsibility to take the legislative and good practice requirements and ensure that the University can demonstrate compliance, and to ensure academic, research and professional support staff know and understand their obligations. This is achieved through training and development, having the appropriate structures such as ethics committees in situ, and/or being available to discuss individual projects and the various approaches that will ensure staff are compliant with the various requirements that may impact upon them.
Contribution to specific research initiative or project
When Louise commenced her role as Senior Policy Officer for Research Governance, each School had its own system for considering the ethical issues of the research that involved human participants. Some used Research Ethics Committees (REC), others, their School Boards or Research Committees. Following an external review on individual School processes, senior leaders agreed that a Faculty Research Ethics Committee model should be introduced, with the formation of one Faculty REC, with representation from each School within the Faculty involved, despite some doing little or no human participant research.
Louise decided to pilot the initiative and have it externally evaluated, prior to it being made a permanent structure. Louise worked closely with Professor Brendan Murtagh, School of Natural Built Environment, to establish a working group, and to facilitate the systems and processes for the receipt, consideration, and how to inform applicants of committee decisions relating to their research.
The Faculty REC met for the first time in December 2016 and operated for nine months before it was evaluated. While the process of change wasn’t always smooth and required significant energy and diplomacy, the approach has now been adopted and fully implemented in the Faculties of EPS and MHLS, and the model is now being rolled out within AHSS with the aim to have a Faculty REC operational for the new academic year in 2022-23.
This model has resulted in less academic time spent on ethical review, enhanced quality of research projects, and it ensures a robust, timely, transparent approach to the ethical consideration of research studies.