Brescia campus

Research Ethics Board

The Brescia Research Ethics Board (BREB) provides ethical guidance on conducting research with human participants, and reviews and approves research involving humans conducted at Brescia or by Brescia faculty, staff, and students. For application guidance please see our application documents.

Ethics Mandate

Brescia University College, as an academic institution that is eligible to receive and administer funds from the Tri-Council granting agencies, must comply with Tri-Council policies including the Tri-Council Policy Statement on Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS 2 (2022)). 

Brescia must therefore ensure that any research conducted under its auspices adheres to the TCPS 2 (2018), which means that any faculty, staff, or students who are conducting research with humans or human biological specimens must submit an ethics application to the Brescia Research Ethics Board (BREB). This includes faculty who are involved as co-investigators or collaborators on projects conducted at other institutions. In some cases, Brescia faculty may be required to submit an application through Western University’s Research Ethics Board. If this is the case, the BREB will accept the Western REB ethics approval. 

Note – researchers external to Brescia who are looking to conduct research on Brescia campus or with Brescia faculty, staff, students have to contact the BREB or Research Officer.

Guidelines:

Before you submit an application to the BREB, review the following guidelines:

  1. The BREB reviews applications based on the principles and information contained in the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans, 2nd edition (TCPS 2 (2022)). All researchers applying for ethics should be familiar with the content in this policy and it is highly suggested to complete the online tutorial (Course on Research Ethics – CORE).
  2. If your research protocol would be considered medically invasive, you must provide an additional letter describing the invasive procedure to Brescia’s Vice-Principal and Academic Dean, who will then provide the information to our insurance company for a classification of risk assessment. If additional insurance is required, you must wait for the insurance approval before beginning participant recruitment and data collection.
  3. Research for the purposes of pedagogy, which has been approved through the Student Research Ethics Review Panel (SRERP), must still undergo BREB approval if a faculty member intends to conduct the research with the possibility of publishing it. See: BUC Guidelines for Student Research Involving Human Subjects
  4. Review the BREB Decision Tree to determine whether you should submit your application to the Brescia or Western REB.
  5. If you have received Western REB approval for your project, you must email one (1) copy of the approval letter within 30 days of Western REB approval to the Research Officer. An email confirming the receipt of your submission will be sent. You do not have to submit a separate application to the BREB.

BREB Submission Deadlines:

Applications are due the second Monday of the month in September, October, November, January, February, March, April, May, and June.

Under special circumstances the BREB may consider reviewing an application submitted in December, July, and August. Contact the Research Officer for more information.

Note: If a submission deadline falls on a holiday, the submission will be accepted on the next business day.

To submit your BREB application, email it and all relevant appendices (in Word or PDF) and submit one (1) signed hard copy (in paper or with digital signature) to the Research Officer.

Application Documents

BREB Application and Resources

Use this form when preparing your initial application to the BREB:

Use the following forms for changes to your approved study, to renew an approved study, or to close an approved study:

Templates and Guidelines

If you are applying to Western’s Non-Medical or Health Sciences REB, find their templates on Western's Research site. 

Email your BREB application (in Word or PDF) and submit one (1) signed hard copy (in paper or with digital signature) to the Research Officer.