Review of contentious applications

In exceptional cases where there is a significant, fundamental difference of opinion (e.g. about the ethics of a proposed piece of research) between the ethics reviewers involved, and it has not been possible to reach a consensus through dialogue between the ethics reviewers (i.e. the application is contentious) then the application should be ethically reviewed by the department's ethics review panel.

In very exceptional cases (i.e. the ethics review panel cannot itself reach a consensus about an application) the application can be ethically reviewed by the U-REC. In such cases the decision of the U-REC is final.

The U-REC reserves the right to monitor the department's ethics review procedure as and when required and, as a minimum, will contact departments on an annual basis for an annual report of key activities and findings over the preceding twelve months.