Remit of the Committee

To scrutinise all requests from researchers to the School of Medicine and Dentistry for educational studies involving access to staff, students and documentation.

Terms of Reference

• To protect the interests of potential research subjects, both staff and students.
• To give ethical approval of educational research undertaken within the School Medicine and Dentistry
• To ensure responsible / professional attitudes and behaviour towards educational research.
• To promote professional responsibility, accountability and good practice within the educational research domain.
• To promote co-ordination of educational research proposals across the School of Medicine and Dentistry
• To provide feedback for non-approval.
• To liaise with other ethics committees and appropriate groups
• To co-opt particular expertise as necessary.

Applying for Ethical Approval

1. Please carefully read the Guidance on University Ethical Review at http://researchsupport.leeds.ac.uk/index.php/academic_staff/good_practice/ethical_review_process/university_ethical_review-1 The University ethics application form you will need to complete is also available via this link
2. All potential research that intends to have undergraduate medical students at Leeds as participants requires permission to do so from Dr Richard Fuller, Chair of MBChB committee, R.Fuller@leeds.ac.uk.  A copy of the research proposal should be sent to Dr Fuller and a copy of his approval submitted with the EdREC application
3. The EdREC application should be sent to the Administrator FMHUniEthics@leeds.ac.uk. The submission requires a fully completed University ethics application form, a Research Protocol (if available), a Participants Information Sheet, the Consent Form (see model documents and guidance via above link) and a copy of any tools, such as questionnaires. In addition, where applicable, evidence of MBChB approval from Dr Fuller is required.
4. The expected time for the ethics review process is 4 weeks before any comments from the reviewers can be forwarded to the applicant. The full review time to approval is usually six weeks and there may be added time if the reviewers require further information.  The review process is likely to take longer at holiday periods, so planning ahead is advisable.
5. Please advise the Administrator at the time of submitting the EdREC application if there are urgent and exceptional circumstances.
6. Applicant will be notified in writing as soon as possible after the final decision of the reviewers is made. It is essential that research does not commence before approval has been received.