Governance

Our research governance processes provide a framework for our researchers to meet the high standards required under the UK Concordat to Support Research Integrity. They help to ensure research is high quality, rigorous and carried out safely and responsibly.

Ethics

We have robust policies and processes in place to protect everyone involved in our research – from those participating in research to the researchers themselves.

We have a 5 Subject Research Ethics Committees, each providing specialist scrutiny and approval for ethics applications in their areas of expertise. These subject committees report up to a central University Research Ethics Sub-Committee which oversees research ethics and research ethics policy for the whole University.

Human tissue

We undertake ethically approved research involving human tissue, and are licensed by the Human Tissue Authority (HTA; licence number 12632) to lawfully store human tissue on the premises under the Human Tissue Act 2004.

We view all human tissue donated to our research as a valuable resource and we are grateful to those who have donated tissue samples. All staff and students using human tissue are expected to adhere to the Human Tissue Authority’s guiding principles, and our Human Tissue Management Sub-Committee aids them in this by providing a Human Tissue Quality Manual containing our policies and procedures governing the acquisition, use, storage and disposal of human tissue, overseeing training and support, as well as monitoring compliance with the manual and our licence.

Contracts

The University enters into all sorts of research agreements with other bodies – funding, collaboration, non-disclosure, consultancy, licensing, material transfer and more.

These can only be signed by certain people at Edge Hill – you can find a list to the right.

University staff need to contact the Research Office before beginning discussions with external partners on all contracts and other legal agreements, including Materials Transfer Agreements. A copy of ALL agreements must be lodged with the Research Office.