Information for current students

Application Process Summary staff and PGR

The College Research Ethics Committee (CREC) considers staff and postgraduate research student (PhD/EdD) applications.  Applications are uploaded to the online Research Ethics System at: https://frontdoor.spa.gla.ac.uk/login/ and forwarded to reviewers through this system.

To Submit an Application

1  Choose Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee

2  Choose Project Title

3  If student, choose Supervisor

4  Upload documents, an Ethics Application Form and Participant Information Sheet are mandatory, a Privacy Notice is now also required. For all research proposals involving the collection, processing and/or storage of data derived from human participants. The Data Management Plan should also be provided with your application.

A Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) is now also required to be prepared. The Research Ethics Committee reviews how data is handled and may comment on a DPIA if this is provided but this does not constitute signing it off. The DPIA is the responsibility of the researcher and advice should be sought from the Data Protection and Freedom of Information Office. Projects that are considered high risk may require the DPIA to be reviewed by the DPFIO. See Risk Classifications.

Prior to the application being submitted to the administrator the application is still in a draft state and documents can be deleted and changed.  Once submitted an application number is allocated and the application cannot then be changed unless returned by administrator or reviewer

Staff Applicants

• Ethical Risks section must be completed, signed and dated by staff applicants.

Student Applicants

• Ethical Risks section must be completed, signed and dated by supervisor in case of student applications.

All Applicants

• The Declaration at the end of the Ethics Application Form must be signed and dated by the applicant, and supervisor where applicable. 

5  Submit application, this goes to supervisor if student, direct to ethics administrator if staff applicant. (Supervisor will receive email alerting them to application. Once the application is finalised, the supervisor submits the application to the administrator)

6  If application is returned by the administrator an Administrative Comments Document is uploaded and an automatic email asks the applicant to log-in to system. Changes should be made to the relevant documents, the changed versions uploaded and the application resubmitted to the administrator.

Once application is accepted, the administrator selects the reviewers and forwards application on for ethical review. The applicant will be emailed to notify them that the application has been forwarded for review.  The Committee Reviewer has two weeks to review and upload their comments.  Once the committee review is complete the Lead Reviewer has a further one week to collate both their comments and upload the final review and outcome.

7  If the application is returned by the reviewers with changes required the Resubmission Document must be filled in indicating how the feedback has been addressed as well as amending the relevant documents.  The changes should be highlighted or made in red coloured text to assist the reviewers. Remember to remove the highlighting before issuing any documents to your participants!

Note: If you encounter problems uploading revised applications, try using a different internet browser, eg. if you are using Internet Explorer try logging out and logging back in using Chrome or Firefox. 

Application Outcomes You will be notified by email asking you to log-in and download the outcome document.

1. Approved. If the application is approved an Approval Letter will be uploaded. 

2. Major Changes Required. If the application requires Major Changes a document containing Collated Comments from all the committee reviewers will be uploaded detailing the required changes. 

3. Minor Changes Required. If the application requires Minor Changes a document containing Collated Comments from all the committee reviewers will be uploaded detailing the required changes. 

4. Rejected.  If the application is rejected a Rejection Letter will be uploaded. The applicant is informed of the rejection and must submit a completely new application if they wish to re- submit their application.

 Request for Amendments to an Approved Ethics Application

1. Applicants should complete the Request for Amendments form and submit it with any supporting documentation to the Ethics Inbox.
2. Where required/possible this is forwarded to the original Lead Reviewer and they are given ten working days to complete the review
3. The applicant is informed of the outcome by email and a copy of Reviewer Feedback/Approval is attached.