Research Ethics

The FST Research Ethics Committee (FSTREC) oversees ethical review of proposed research that is not reviewed through research ethics mechanisms outside the University, such as the NHS Research Ethics Service

Submitting an ethics application

A research project being conducted by FST staff and/or research students should be submitted to the FSTREC for ethical review if it involves human participants, or other possible ethical risk factors, and is not being reviewed externally.

Before submitting a new ethics application or an amendment to an existing ethics application for review please read the university's guidance. For additional help with research and ethical considerations during the pandemic, you may find this Guidance on ethical considerations document ‌useful.

Undergraduate and taught postgraduate coursework and dissertations that involve the generation of data with human participants need to be approved before any data is generated. As responsibility for ethics review of undergraduate and taught postgraduate projects lies within the Departments, applications for these research projects should not be submitted to FSTREC.

NOTE: During the summer months, it can take longer to review applications due to staff leave and other commitments. Therefore please help us to help you and allow extra time for your application to be fully processed and reviewed in summer.

Faculty of Science & Technology Research Ethics information accordion

Tab Content: Committee Membership

Chair

Deputy Chair

  • tbc

Psychology

School of Computing and Communications

Lancaster Environment Centre

Maths & Statistics

Chemistry

Physics

  • tbc

Engineering

Lay members and Student representatives

Tab Content: Committee Calendar

Dates for the academic year 2024-25

Applications for ethics review can be submitted at any time, so please do not wait until a committee deadline to submit your application. However, if your study poses significant ethical risks, it will be considered by the committee at its meetings, and the deadlines for paperwork for each meeting are given below. Please note that these dates are set at the beginning of the academic year and are subject to change due to teaching schedules - if in doubt, please check with the Research Ethics team.

  • 19th September 2024
  • 21st November 2024
  • 23rd January 2025
  • 20th March 2025
  • 22nd May 2025
  • 17th July 2025

Tab Content: Guidance and Information

The following provides guidance on where to find further information about issues that may apply to your project, regardless of whether you are a staff member, research student or UG/PG, applicant. For queries relating to this guidance please contact the FST Research Ethics Officer.

Training and ethics frameworks

GDPR and Data management

Lancaster University Researcher safety policies and guidance

Research with Children

Social media

Transcription

Online transcription services

Please note that Lancaster University currently only has a data-sharing agreement with Nvivo and Microsoft (OneDrive and Teams) for transcription services. All other systems are not supported. A list of suggested software from ISS can be found here: Guidance from ISS on transcription software and technology

If you are using a transcriber external to your research team they will have to sign a Transcriber confidentiality agreement.

Intellectual Property

For queries relating to Intellectual Property please email the Intellectual Property Team (ext. 93298).

NHS Sponsorship

Research with Animals

If your work involves animals you will need authorisation from the Chief Administrative Officer and may need to submit an application to AWERB, please contact the secretary to AWERB, Lucy Sanderson for further details.