Introduction

The aim of this page is to clarify the role and remit of the HERC and provide guidance on applications to staff and students who wish to undertake research using human participants. The page also provides information on external requests to recruit students from this School.

The University of Edinburgh complies with the 5 commitments set out in the Universities UK Concordat to support research integrity which includes conducting research in an ethical manner (www.ed.ac.uk/governance-strategic-planning/research/research-integrity). In addition, the majority of scientific journals now require confirmation that institutional ethical approval has been obtained for research using human participants, as part of their review process prior to publication.

The definition of what needs HERC 'favourable opinion' (approval) are projects where the participant is a human subject, for example they are being asked to complete a questionnaire or take part in an interview or focus group, or where data is produced by a human e.g. videos/images etc. HERC does not cover clinical trials involving treatments or procedures performed on human participants, their tissue or medical data as these are reviewed elsewhere (accord.scot/about-accord).

Animal Research

Research involving animals should receive ethical approval from either the Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Body (AWERB) for research covered under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (A(SP)A) or the Veterinary Ethical Review Committee (VERC) for research on animals that is not covered under A(SP)A.

ACCORD

HERC does not provide 'favourable opinion' (approval) for projects involving collecting samples from humans e.g. blood. These projects required a sponsor and are reviewed at college level by the Academic and Clinical Central Office of Research and Development (ACCORD), contact resgov@accord.scot for advice. Please feel free to also contact HERC for advice on this in the first instance and please do inform HERC that these projects are taking place for our school records as well.

The role of the HERC is to consider and provide 'favourable opinion' (approval) for research projects using human participants (or their creation of data) in research carried out at the R(D)SVS by staff or students.

External requests

If you want to survey R(D)SVS students or engage with them for research purposes, please read the policy about this.

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