Getting Ethics and Trust Approval
Surviving the Ethics Procedure
All research involving patients, healthy volunteers or health care workers requires ethics approval from the Local Research Ethics Committee (LREC).
Applying for approval involves filling in and submitting the appropriate form, which asks for a description of the research and who will be involved.
This is not as daunting as it sounds as your research protocol will provide most of the information needed.
Any of the support organisations mentioned above can help with completing this form. It is available from your local RDSU office and the website of the Central Office for Research Ethics Committees (COREC), http://www.corec.org.uk
Getting Trust Approval
All research involving patients, healthy volunteers or health/social care workers also requires approval from the Research Lead at the Primary Care Trust (PCT) where the research will take place.
Your research protocol should be the vehicle for straightforward approval.
The PCT's R&D Manager or Research Lead will advise you of the process. The support organisations given above are there to help you if you need it.
Next page: Research Governance
Study guide collated by: Sandra Hollinghurst, Vicky Wood (Bath RDSU) and Michael Harris 
Last updated: 01 October 2006