Overview of School of Medicine Research Ethics Committee Review Process
The School of Medicine Research Ethics Committee reviews applications from staff and students from the School of Medicine TCD. Applications should be submitted to the Committee via REAMS.
All applicants must register their application using their TCD email address and supply their TCD Staff Number on the Application Form. Applications from person’s not affiliated with TCD will not be considered.
Applications involving research on vulnerable groups such as service users, patients, children under 18 years of age, etc, or applications that include invasive biological samples are not appropriate for review at Level 1 and should be sent to the Faculty Level 2 Research Ethics Committee, or if appropriate the Joint Research Ethics Committee (JREC). Any patient-related research being undertaken on the St James/ Tallaght hospital sites that requires ethical approval requires a submission to be made via Joint Research Ethics Committee (JREC) or applicants should apply to the appropriate hospital/HSE or other relevant ethics review board. Please review our Level 1 Research Ethics Checklist to see if it is appropriate to submit your application to this committee.
All members of staff or students undertaking research should do so with cognisance of the Trinity College Guidelines for Good Research Practice no matter what their research project entails.
If your project involves the recruitment of students from the School of Medicine, a letter of support, must be sought from the Director of Undergraduate Teaching and Learning in the School of Medicine before making an application to any research ethics committee. To seek such a letter please email a brief outline of your study and a copy of your application to: Director of Undergraduate Teaching & Learning for School of Medicine
Level 1 School of Medicine Research Ethics Application for Review
The School of Medicine Research Ethics Committee reviews applications from staff and students from the School of Medicine TCD. These applications must match the Level 1 Research Ethics checklist as set out here:. All applicants must register their application using their TCD email address and supply their TCD Staff Number on the Application Form.
If your study does not meet the Level 1 Research Ethics checklist criteria, you must apply to the relevant Research Ethics Committee listed below;
- Level 2 Research Ethics Applications for Review
All research ethics applications matching the Level 2 criteria must be submitted to the Faculty Research Ethics Committee. - Animal Research Ethics Applications All research ethics applications involving animals must be approved by the TCD Animal Research Ethics Committee.
- Hospital Research Ethics Applications Any patient related research being undertaken on the St James/ Tallaght hospital site which requires ethical approval requires a submission to be made via Joint Research Ethics Committee (JREC): Claire.Hartin@tuh.ie
Should you be unsure of whether your application meets the criteria for the School of Medicine Level 1 Committee review please send an email to somrec@tcd.ie providing a short description of the research you wish to undertake, and advice will be provided.
| SOMREC Meetings 2024-25 | Application Submission Cut Off |
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Wednesday, September 25th 2024 Wednesday, October 30th 2024 Wednesday, November 27th 2024 Wednesday, January 29th 2024 Wednesday, February 26th 2024 Wednesday, March 26th 2024 Wednesday, April 30th 2024 Wednesday, May 28th 2024 Wednesday, June 25th 2024
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Monday, 16th September 2024 Monday, 21st October 2024 Monday, 18th November 2024 Monday, 20th January 2025 Monday, 17th February 2025 Monday, 17th March 2025 Monday, 21st April 2025 Monday, 19th May 2025 Monday, 16th June 2025 |
Once an ethics application has been approved by SOMREC, the researcher(s) is responsible for ensuring that the study is conducted in adherence to the protocols outlined in their ethics application.
Amendment requests to approved studies may be considered where the amendment request constitutes a minor change to the original application that does not materially change the previously approved study. Examples of the type of change that may be submitted as an amendment request include:
- Extension to the end date of the study where there is no change to methods of the approved study (no change to the study methods, recruitment, or data collection).
- Extension of recruitment to the study (for example accessing a wider sample/participants) with no change to the study methods or data collection.
Any alterations to an approved study that involve a change in study methods (for example introducing a new methodology such as the inclusion of a qualitative component, recruitment of a new sample/participants where the study methods are also changing), need to be submitted as a new and separate REC application and will be queued for full review by the committee at the next available meeting.
When submitting an Amendment Request we ask that you:
- Precede your study title with the mention: **Amendment request** and reference your original REAMS application number
- Complete and upload this form (MS Word 20 kB) summarising the amendments that are being requested.
- Please reference the sections that have been amended.
- Email the completed form to SOMREC@tcd.ie
PLEASE NOTE: Applicants must carry out their research study exactly as indicated on the application as approved by the School of Medicine Research Ethics Committee. If any new information comes to light after ethical approval has been received and the study cannot be carried out using the methods as per the approved application, you must contact the School of Medicine Research Ethics Committee to seek approval for any subsequent amendments as necessary, until approval is granted your study must be suspended.
For all queries related to your application to the School of Medicine Research Ethics Committee, please email SOMREC@tcd.ie