College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences

College Ethics Committee

IMPORTANT: a completed screening form must be included with every application, to ensure you use the appropriate application documents for your project.  All documents are available to download to the right of this page, or from the Research Ethics System.

Please read the Committee's updated ethics guidelines‌ to ensure you only make an application if you need to

• The University now requires that all research proposals involving the collection, processing and/or storage of data derived from human participants, that are submitted to a College Research Ethics committee for review, must be accompanied by a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA). 

Please note that while the ethics committee reviews how data are handled in a study and might comment on the DPIA, it does not ‘sign off’ or ‘approve’ DPIAs. The DPIA is the responsibility of the investigators and, if advice is needed, the DP&FOI Office can be contacted.

• The MVLS Committee will now review and where appropriate approve research involving face to face activity. However, all face to face research on campus must be conducted in line with the University COVID 19 return to campus guidance.  Details can be found here: https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/research/covid-19researchfundingadvice/

Ethical approval does not necessarily mean the research can go ahead.  In addition to ethical approval, all research activity involving a physical presence on campus must be discussed and approved by individual Schools.  This is the responsibility of the investigators.

The web-based Research Ethics System for both staff and student ethics applications can be accessed here or via the link on the right. This system has been developed in conjunction with all College ethics committee convenors and provides audited approval of College ethics applications along with automatic notifications to applicants and reviewers. It enables staff to submit their applications directly to the MVLS College Ethics Committee. It also allows students to upload their ethics application documents and submit them directly to their supervisors, who can then submit the completed applications to the College Ethics Committee for review.  Please ensure that you use the latest versions of the application documents, available to download to the right. Further information for applicants can be found here.

The University requires that all research involving human data or material is subject to formal ethical review. To comply with these regulations, the College has appointed a College Ethics Officer and an Ethics Committee to assess all non-clinical research projects.

Clinical projects and projects involving participants selected because of their links with the NHS (for example, through GP surgeries), or because of their professional roles within the NHS, should be submitted to the Research Ethics Service.  In addition, all studies involving human tissue (including blood samples) or data from NHS patients should be submitted to NRES.

For information and assistance regarding the College Ethics Committee, please contact:

Mr. Neil Allan and the MVLS Ethics Admin Team
Room B313, Sir Graeme Davies Building
University Avenue
Glasgow  G12 8TA
email: mvls-ethics-admin@glasgow.ac.uk