After You Have Initial Ethics Approval

Ethics approval is granted on an annual basis. For multi-year studies, approval must be renewed annually through a PAA Annual Renewal. Annual Renewals allow for the renewal of an ethics application, but do not allow for any changes or amendments to the application. 

For more information and instructions on how to submit, please see our renewal page.

Amendments to Study allows for changes to the application. All changes to an application must be reviewed and approved before they can be implemented. 

For more information about specific types of amendments see

• Changing PI  
• Changing Study Team Members
• Adding Funding
• Changing Research Methods
• Amending Shortened Application (including survey only and secondary use of data application)

For more information and instructions on how to submit amendments, please see our amendment page 

A Completion of Behavioural Study allows for the closure of an application. All ethics applications must be closed when they are complete. When you are informed that an application has expired, this does not mean that your study has been closed. Additional steps are required to successfully terminate your application. 

Helpful Links 

• How to submit a Completion on RISe
• Fillable Completion Coversheet
• Completion Coversheet Guidance Notes

Request for Acknowledgement (RFA) allows you to notify the BREB of any unanticipated events (e.g. the theft or loss of a laptop containing confidential information about participants) or a protocol deviation (i.e. when conducted research unexpectedly veers from the approved protocol).

Helpful Links 

• How to submit a Request for Acknowledgment on RISe
• Fillable RFA Coversheet
• RFA Coversheet Guidance Notes
• Reporting Breaches in Data Security and Confidentiality

Unlike initial ethics applications, post approval activities do not need to go through department approval. 

The primary contact in Box 1.2 of the ethics application and the Principal Investigator in Box 1.1 will receive all correspondence and notifications from RISe related to the study. 

Yes. The Principal Investigator can change the primary contact without submitting a post approval amendment by navigating to the study homepage and clicking the "Change Primary Contact" button found under the activities tab on the left side of the screen. 
Note that adding an individual as primary contact does not add them to the study team. 

For all PAA types, any study team member with online access to the application (Boxes 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4) can begin a PAA. However, only the Principal Investigator (PI) or a designated signing authority can submit the PAA for review. If additional changes are required after initial submission, anyone with online access can modify and re-submit the PAA. 

Research ethics is not required during the analysis stage, provided the analysis is in line with the approved application and no further contact with your participant population or data collection is anticipated. 

If your application involves Secondary Use of Data, the data custodians may require that you maintain ethics approval for the duration of your data access. You will need to check with the data custodian for their requirements. If this is the case, submit an Annual Renewal PAA and indicate the data custodian's requirement in Box 1.3 of the coversheet. 

To inactivate your PAA, start by navigating to the PAA page on RISe. Once on the PAA page, click "Inactivate PAA" on the left side of the screen (under Activities). Note that in some cases only the PI will have access to this option.