Ethics Approval for Empirical Research

Ethics Policy

All research involving human participants or human tissue samples that is carried out by staff or students of the University of Sheffield requires ethics approval. 

Students who undertake research involving human participants or personal data must obtain ethics approval prior to commencing this research. Guidance about the process involved in obtaining ethics approval and access to the online system for submitting applications for ethics approval are available here. 

The approval process follows policies and procedures established centrally by the University Research Ethics Committee, and is supervised locally by the departmental Ethics Coordinator, currently Dr Ryan Byerly, with the Department’s Ethics Administration Support, Ed Matthews.

The University's ethics policy itself can be found on the Research, Partnerships and Innovations webpage.

Ethics Applications

Staff and students planning research requiring ethics approval should submit an ethics application at least three weeks before the start of work on their project, as approval must be received before work begins. 

A Risk Assessment may need to be completed in tandem with the ethics application. 

The online Ethics Application System can be accessed by clicking on this LINK or in My Services within MUSE. The system allows to create a new application, amend and edit an application, and delete it if necessary. Information and resources on how to use the online system are available here, with resources to help completing the application and think about the wider issues of research ethics. 

In addition to getting Ethical Approval, a Risk Assessment may be needed to check on the researchers' own exposure to any risks while carrying out the research. This is a separate process to the Ethics Approval system, but should be considered at the same time as the submission of the ethics form and is obligatory if the research might involve some exposure to risk: this includes going overseas (including back to the researcher's country), doing research work out of hours and/or outside of University's premises, or engaging in some aspect of research that could present a particular risk for any of the researchers. The Principal Investigator (PI) must make sure all relevant people know their responsibilities and that the activity is done as planned. The PI must also monitor health and safety during the activity itself and make appropriate adjustments as required. A risk assessment template