Edinburgh Napier University

All funded and non-funded research involving human participants or personal data within the School of Health and Social Care (SHSC) requires ethical review through the School Research Integrity Committee (SHSC ethics) to ensure that participants will not experience physical and/or psychological harm and ensure the participation is worthwhile.

These pages set out the procedures for obtaining ethical review and provides supporting guidance and resources. It is essential that applicants read University Code of Practice for Research Integrity 2018 prior to completing the ethics application.

• Becoming an ethical researcher – covers the basic principles of research ethics, and underpinning values for ethical research 
• Research Ethics in Practice – suitable for researchers from any discipline who are including human participants in the research

It is important to download the School of Health & Social Care Ethics Handbook for specific guidance and information on how to complete the SHSC ethics application. 

Does my study require ethical review?

If you are uncertain whether your study requires ethical review or not, please contact ethics.shsc@napier.ac.uk prior to completing the full ethics application.

It is important to consult the Flowchart to check what type of ethics application should be completed.

Staff and post-graduate research (PGR) students will need to complete an online application provided in the Worktribe Ethics Application Facilities.
To access the worktribe system, please use the following links and log in with your ENU username and password at: https://napier-research.worktribe.com/. To help create the ethics application please use the ethics applicant user guide, which can be found on the Worktribe Training page. Worktribe training videos are also available to provide guidance on how to complete the online application.

Undergraduate and postgraduate taught students will need to complete a word version of the application found in the Key Documents below and send the completed application to ethics.shsc@napier.ac.uk.

Key Documents
1. SHSC Application Form
2. Document checklist
3. Risk Assessment Form
4. Amendment Request Form
5. Ethics Feedback Form 

Please use the weblinks in the document checklist for all supporting forms that are available on the Research Integrity and Research Governance webpages so that you use the most up to date templates. A list of University approved tools for managing data can be found here.

For further advice and information undertaking research during the Covid-19 pandemic please go to the Research Integrity webpages.