Part 13: Central University Research Ethics Committee

13.1. The Central University Research Ethics Committee shall consist of:

(1) a person appointed by Council who shall chair the committee;

(2) one of the Proctors or the Assessor as may be agreed between them;

(3) the chair of the Medical Sciences Interdivisional Research Ethics Committee;

(4) the chair of the Social Sciences and Humanities Interdivisional Research Ethics Committee;

(5) the chair of the Oxford Tropical Research Ethics Committee.

(6), (7) two external persons appointed by the Research and Innovation Committee of Council;

(8)–(13) up to six persons appointed by the Research and Innovation Committee of Council to ensure appropriate representation of areas of research involving human participants or personal data.

13.2. Appointed members shall serve for four years and shall be re-eligible.

13.3. The committee may co-opt up to four additional members, who may be internal or external, and who shall hold office for such period as the committee may determine.

13.4. The committee shall:

(1) develop, promote, implement and keep under review the University's policies on research involving human participants and personal data;

(2) establish, promote, implement, and keep under review procedures for the consideration and approval of research projects involving human participants or personal data in order to meet the University’s requirement that all such research shall be the subject of ethical review;

(3) advise, as it sees fit, on training provision for those bodies set out in regulation 13.7 (1)–(3) below, for any other bodies involved in considering applications for ethical review and for those undertaking research involving human participants or personal data;

(4) consider any matter of policy concerning the ethical approval of research involving human participants, tissue and/or personal data referred to the committee by the bodies set out in regulation 13.7 (1)-(3) below or any other relevant body;

(5) consider any issues concerning the ethics of research referred to the committee by any other University body.

13.5. The committee shall establish, implement and keep under review a procedure for considering appeals against the exercise of the power under regulation 13.13 (3) by its subcommittees.

13.6. The committee shall report to the Research and Innovation Committee of Council:

(1) as required on changes to the University’s policies on research involving human participants, tissue and/or personal data; and

(2) annually on the matters set out in regulations 13.4 and 13.5 above.

13.7. The committee shall have the following subcommittees and technical advisory panel:

(1) Medical Sciences Interdivisional Research Ethics Committee;

(2) Social Sciences and Humanities Interdivisional Research Ethics Committee;

(3) Oxford Tropical Research Ethics Committee;

(4) Technical Advisory Panel.

13.8. The membership of each subcommittee established by these regulations shall consist of:

(1), (2) Two persons appointed as chair and vice-chair of the subcommittee by the Research and Innovation Committee of Council, ideally one of whom shall not currently be involved in research involving human participants or personal data. One of the persons appointed as chair or vice-chair may be external but not both;

(3) One person, who may be external, appointed by the Central University Research Ethics Committee on the recommendation of the chair of the relevant subcommittee whose primary personal or professional interest is not in research involving human participants, tissue and/or personal data;

(4) One person, who may be external, appointed by the Central University Research Ethics Committee on the recommendation of the chair of the relevant subcommittee whose primary personal or professional interest is not in any particular research area;

(5)-(12) No fewer than three, and no more than eight, persons, one of whom may be external, appointed by the Central University Research Ethics Committee on the recommendation of the chair of the relevant subcommittee who have methodological and ethical expertise relevant to the proposals which each subcommittee will be expected to scrutinise.

13.9. Appointed members shall serve for four years and shall be re-eligible.

13.10. Each subcommittee may co-opt up to four additional members, who may be internal or external, and who shall hold office for such period as the subcommittee may determine.

13.11. Notwithstanding regulation 13.8(1), (2) above, the Research and Innovation Committee of Council may, but is not obliged to, appoint a second vice-chair of each subcommittee on the recommendation of the chair of the Central University Research Ethics Committee. For the avoidance of doubt, the second vice-chair may be external.

13.12. No fewer than two of the members of the Medical Sciences Interdivisional Research Ethics Committee, whether appointed under regulation 13.8 or co-opted under regulation 13.10, shall be medically qualified members with current experience of prescribing of licensed drugs.

13.13. Each subcommittee shall:

(1) review the ethics of all proposals submitted to it for research involving human participants or personal data conducted by University employees or by University students or conducted by others on University premises unless the research falls within the remit of the Health Research Authority, or any subsequent body to which its powers are delegated, in which case such research must meet the requirements of that authority;

(2) grant ethical approval on behalf of the University if it is satisfied that the research complies with the University’s policies and procedures on research involving human participants, tissue and/or personal data;

(3) have the power to withhold, suspend or withdraw approval of research (whether or not the approval was given by any body established by these regulations) if it is considered to be in contravention of the University’s policies and procedures on research involving human participants or personal data;

(4) establish and regularly review for approval by the Central University Research Ethics Committee:

(a) procedures for monitoring research approved by it to verify that the research continues to comply with the University’s policies and procedures on research involving human participants, tissue and/or personal data;

(b) procedures for ensuring that all research projects involving human participants, tissue and/or personal data are reviewed and approved, as appropriate, under the relevant subcommittee’s procedures; 

(c) areas in which they would benefit from formal, sustained specialist support, to inform the focus of recruitment to the technical advisory panel, and;

(d) standing orders.

(5) report annually to the Central University Research Ethics Committee and provide such other reports as are specified in its Standing Orders.

13.14 The membership of the technical advisory panel established by these regulations shall consist of: relevant area specialists, who may be external; individual(s), who may be external, with expertise in ethical implications of the relevant area; representation from the University’s Information Compliance and Information Security teams.

13.15 Appointed members shall serve for three years and shall be re-eligible.

13.16 The technical advisory panel shall:

(1) provide non-binding advice to CUREC subcommittees related to projects under research ethics review where their individual or corporate expertise is required; 

(2) where specific time-limited projects are indicated, such as development of best practice guidance or provision of training, join working groups drawn from the technical panel and beyond;

(3) report annually to Central University Research Ethics Committee.