School of Chemistry Research Ethics Committee
Overview
All research with impact has an ethical dimension and all researchers should reflect on the implications of their work, not just in terms of human (and animal) welfare and dignity, but also the social, security, military, environmental and cultural impact of their research. All research, outreach activities and public engagements conducted by School of Chemistry staff, visitors and students must be performed in accordance with the College’s Code of Conduct, Research Ethics and Guidelines for Good Research Practice. Areas such as plagiarism, good research practice, etc. are not covered by the Research Ethics Committee (REC). The latter is only concerned with ethical aspects of grant proposals, studies and research projects.
See https://www.tcd.ie/research/dean/ethics/ for further information.
Research involving humans and animals will require ethical review; however, other types of research may often have ethical considerations that must be addressed. Examples are projects involving human embryos, foetuses, cells and tissues, personal data, third countries, environment health and safety, dual use for military applications and misuse. Useful information for identifying areas with ethical impact can be found on the respective European Commission and Horizon 2020 websites. In order to provide efficient and timely ethical review it has been agreed that all Schools/Units must have a research ethics approval policy in place. Schools/Units may use their own Research Ethics Committee (REC), use another School/Unit's REC, or a Faculty REC.
It is the PI's responsibility to identify any ethical issues regarding a research project, public engagement or societal activity, and all research proposals must be screened for ethical implications and follow the respective guidelines and legislation.
In those cases with ethical implications formal approval of the research must be sought from the REC of the School of Chemistry.
There are two levels of REC; Level 1 RECs have the power to review and approve "no and low risk" research, while Level 2 RECs are concerned with "high risk" research. Membership of each type of committee will be commensurate with the level of risk. Full details of the types of research associated with each level of REC can be found in the document, Criteria for Research Ethics Committees (2014).
The SoC REC is recognized at Level 1 [no risk to relatively low risk research].Application
The SoC Research Ethics Committee will consider each application. To apply for research ethics approval, you should e-mail your application to sboyce@tcd.ie and submit the required hard-copies to Chair, School of Chemistry, Research Ethics Committee, Chemistry Building, Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, Dublin 2.
For further information, see links below.
All applications must be reviewed and signed by the Research Supervisor or Principal Investigator on the project. This signature confirms an assertion that the application is complete in terms of its formal requirements; it does not stand as proxy for ethical approval. Forms that are not signed, are incomplete or presented to an acceptable standard will be rejected without further consideration.