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Mandate & Policies

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 ensure that any research conducted under its auspices adheres to the TCPS 2 (2022), 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 submit an application to Western University’s Research Ethics Board. If this is the case, the BREB will accept the Western REB ethics approval (see Guidelines #1 & #3a below).   

Investigators external to Brescia are asked to contact the Research Officer and/or BREB Chair, and to coordinate submission of their approved application and/or official approval letter (as applicable), for multijurisdictional review.

Guidelines:

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

  1. The Brescia Policy for Ethical Review of Research Involving Human
    Participants
    1. All researchers (and personnel listed on applications) applying for ethics approval should be familiar with the TCPS2 (2022), and have undertaken the relevant CORE training program. This documentation may be requested by the BREB.
  2. To fulfill a course requirement, students registered in Brescia University College courses may be required to conduct research with human participants (including data and/or biological materials), or may ask permission to conduct such research. For these situations, review the Brescia University College Guidelines for Students Conducting Research and Pedagogical Activities Involving Human Participants.
  3. Review the BREB Decision Tree to determine if researchers should submit applications to the Brescia or Western REB(s).
    1. If the application is approved by a Western REB, Brescia faculty, staff, and/or students will supply to the BREB documentation, including the approval letter for review within 30 days of receipt, for authorization.
  4. If the research protocol would be considered medically invasive, researchers must provide an additional letter describing the invasive procedure to Brescia’s Academic Dean, who will seek a classification of risk assessment. If additional insurance is required, you must wait for the insurance approval before beginning participant recruitment and data collection.