Business School

The Business School Regional Ethics Review Committee (RERC) is a delegated ethics review body of UWA responsible for reviewing low-risk human research.

Procedure for Human Research Ethics Approval

The ethics approval process is managed by the Business School Research Office.  All ethics applications and enquiries should be directed to [email protected].

The following steps must be completed for the preparation, submission and approval of a human research ethics application.

Step 1:     Please read the information on the Human Research Ethics Office (HREO) website and their How to write a good ethics application.

Step 2:     Assemble your application documents. These include your Application Form,  Participant Information and Participant Consent Form, questionnaire or survey instrument, recruitment material and student research proposal if applicable

Step 3:     Please EMAIL your application documents in Word or RTF (not PDF) to [email protected].

The application must be signed by the Chief Investigator/Research Supervisor, or can be emailed from his or her UWA staff email address.

Step 4:   Your application will be emailed to the Head of School (or equivalent) authorising School support and forwarded to HREO who will acknowledge receipt of the application by sending an acknowledgment letter to the Chief Investigator/Research Supervisor.

Step 5:    The HREO determines the risk level assessment and subsequently allocates to one of three ethics review pathways:

Exempt - no risk -  Activities that do not require formal ethics review
Level 1 - negligible risk - Ethics review by the Human Research Ethics Office (HREO)
Level 2 - low risk - Ethics review by a Regional Ethics Review Committee (RERC)   
Level 3 - higher risk - Ethics review by the Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC)
 

The Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) meets monthly to review applications deemed Higher Risk - level 3.  Please see their website for meeting dates and submission deadlines.

The HREC or RERC may request changes if necessary before they approve the application.

Step 6:     The HREO  will notify the Chief Investigator/Research Supervisor once ethics approval has been granted and the research project can begin.