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Joint Research Management Office

Breadcrumb

  1. JRMO
  2. Performing research
  3. Conducting research with human participants (outside the NHS)
  4. QMERC review routes for ethics approval
  5. Block and International applications and Transfer of studies to Queen Mary

Block and International applications and Transfer of studies to Queen Mary

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Staff, Supervisors and Module leaders can apply for block review and approval for a group of sufficiently similar research projects which are low risk.

Block approval is at the central QMERC level, ensuring the study is low-risk, eligible to sit under the scope of the block approval and identifies and mitigates any ethical issues.

Applications for block approval will initially be screened by a Research Ethics Facilitator and submitted to the next available Review Panel or a specially arranged Chairs Panel.

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Queen Mary researchers conducting research abroad, or part of an international collaboration, should be aware of the different civil, legal, financial and cultural conditions when working overseas and are expected to refer to international guidelines and conform to relevant local regulations for the country or countries where the research is taking place. It is expected that the research will also comply with the QMERC policies and guidelines as well as other relevant QM policies and procedures, such as relating to insurance arrangements, and risk assessment, etc.

QM staff leading on the research are required to obtain ethics approval prior to study start. QMERC ethics review flowchart for collaborative research [PDF 65KB] will help you determine if your international research requires Queen Mary ethics approval. We cannot tell you whether other ethics approvals (local approvals) are required and how to obtain them.

The UKRI includes important information for consideration when conducting research overseas. The International Compilation of Human Research Standards listing compiles laws, regulations and guidelines that govern human participant protections in 131 countries, and is a good first-port-of-call for scoping research requirements and contacts in a particular territory.

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For all researchers new to QM and transferring their research involving human participants (including human data or human tissue) to Queen Mary, to reduce duplication, when completing the application, you will need to provide:

  • the Terms of Reference for the originating REC,
  • a copy of the application,
  • a copy of the approval letter and
  • any relevant supporting documents. 

We reserve the right to ask for further information such as a full application and revised documents.

All applications will be triaged by the Research Ethics Facilitators for risk level and the applications will be reviewed as appropriate to its risk level.

Amendments to the research which had previously been approved by another Research Ethics Committee (or equivalent) would require review of the original application documents via the appropriate review route. If an amendment changes the risk to participants, researchers or Queen Mary University a new application is required as QMERC was not involved in the scrutiny of the original ethical application and therefore has not fully considered the level of risk.

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