All staff and students of ATU Sligo are required to plan and conduct their research investigations in accordance with appropriate ethical standards. Staff should ensure that they have knowledge of any relevant disciplinary guidelines on research ethics and that any empirical research has the required approval by the Research Ethics Committees.
All potential applicants should be familiar with the Research Ethics Policy and the related Research Ethics Procedure.
The function of each of the Research Ethics Committees is to safeguard the health, welfare and rights of human participants and researchers in research studies. For any research proposal to gain ethical approval it must be necessary and of a design that minimises predictable risk to both the research participant and the researcher.
The Research Ethics Committees aspires to provide comprehensive and independent reviews of the ethics of proposed studies, acting in accordance with good ethical practice as dictated by relevant EU Directives, National legislation and practice guidelines. If the proposed research involves patients (i.e. people who are receiving treatment as a result of an illness) the applicant should seek confirmation of the need to submit their application to the relevant hospital’s Research Ethics Committees.