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COVID-19: updated guidance for students on health and social care research project ethics

This guidance relates to health and social care research projects conducted by undergraduate and master’s students that are sponsored by St George’s, University of London and may be subject to change. It complements guidance provided by the Health Research Authority (HRA) regarding COVID 19 .

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the HRA are prioritising the review of studies related to COVID-19. Therefore, they have decided to stop reviewing applications for individual undergraduate and master’s student projects from now until further notice.

Applications for PhD student projects will continue to be accepted by the HRA and St George’s, University of London Research Ethics Committee (SGREC).

Our SGREC are keen to facilitate student research as much as possible during this uncertain time. However the following measures need to be applied:

Suggestions for existing, approved studies:

  • Please check with the relevant NHS R&D offices and gatekeepers to confirm if your study is able to proceed.
  • Please consider changing any interview/focus group discussions to phone interviews or online sessions, and submit the amendment to sgulREC@sgul.ac.uk. Please find the amendment form on our website.

Suggestions for new studies:

  • Student research that does not require SGREC, HRA or R&D review such as literature reviews, rapid, scoping or systematic reviews can go ahead.
  • Research projects which only involve online questionnaires or telephone interviews, where the participants are other students, can be submitted to the SGREC for review and approval.
  • Any other undergraduate or master’s studies, such as those involving NHS staff or face-to-face contact with participants, can be submitted to the SGREC for review but will not be able to start until further notice.
  • Further guidance and information about other alternatives can be found on the HRA website.
  • Consider completing the HRA bite-size eLearning module which explains what HRA and Health and Care Research Wales (HCRW) approvals are, what types of research they apply to and what exemptions there are. It takes approximately 10 minutes to complete.

If you have any further questions, please send them to Dr Angelika Kristek.

 

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