How to apply
Access forms, deadlines, and details on how to submit your application.
Application instructions and forms
This application form should be used only if new data will be collected as part of the research.
Students and learners must secure their supervisor’s review and approval of the research ethics application package prior to submission to the REB.
Note: All submissions must be sent in a single electronic MS Word or PDF document.
This application form should only be used for secondary use of information and biological materials (such as health records, student records, survey data, or biological material surplus to diagnostic exams or surgical procedures). If the study exclusively uses data that are publicly available or made accessible through legislation or regulation, it is exempt from REB review (TCPS article 2.2).
Students and learners must secure their supervisor’s review and approval of the research ethics application package prior to submission to the REB.
Note: All submissions must be sent in a single electronic MS Word or PDF document.
This application form should be used if:
- The research is multi-jurisdictional; and
- This research involving humans has received research ethics board review and approval from an institution eligible to receive tri-agency funding (a signatory to the Agreement on the Administration of Agency Grants and Awards by Research Institutions); this institution’s research ethics board will be the board of record for this project; and
- The board of record is bound by the TCPS; and
- The researcher/s affiliated with Dalhousie (if any) are not the principal investigator, co-principal investigator or nominated principal investigator on the project; they are not the researcher with primary administrative and/or financial responsibility for the project, nor the researcher responsible for the leadership of the project, including its intellectual direction; and
- The full scope of the research involving humans with which Dalhousie will be affiliated is described and approved by the board of record; and
- You agree to comply with the requirements of the research ethics board of record.
Note: All submissions must be sent in a single electronic MS Word or PDF document.
External researchers who require access to application forms that otherwise require a Dalhousie University login may request forms from Research Ethics by contacting ethics@dal.ca.
Submission instructions
Follow the submission instructions for your research category outlined below.
Faculty, staff, and graduate student research
An electronic copy of the complete submission package (application form and appendices) must be submitted as a single electronic file in MS Word or PDF format. This single file should be named "REB Submission [researcher’s last name]" and submitted by electronic mail attachment to ethics@dal.ca.
The submission should come from the lead researcher (PI) at Dalhousie University. Students and post-doctoral fellows must copy their supervisor on the electronic submission.
Applications are accepted any time during office hours. The monthly deadline dates are available above and constitute the deadlines for research requiring review at a board meeting. Please note that no reviews are conducted in August. Submissions must be received by 4:00 p.m. on the deadline day. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed.
What to include
A single electronic document that includes finalized copies of:
- Application form
- Reference list
- Permission or support/cooperation letters (e.g. School Board, Director of a long-term care facility, anyone whose cooperation or permission you need to recruit participants or conduct research)
- Research agreements (required for research involving Indigenous communities)
- Recruitment documents (posters, oral scripts, online postings, invitations to participate, etc.)
- Screening documents
- Consent/assent documents or scripts
- Research instruments (questionnaires, interview or focus group questions, etc.)
- Debriefing and/or study results templates
- List of data fields included in data repository
- Confidentiality agreements
- Application form
- Reference list
- Steward/Custodian approval, support/cooperation correspondence
- Research agreements (required for research involving Indigenous communities)
- Original and/or new consent documents
- Data capture sheet/list of data fields, variables, survey items
- Flow diagram outlining data collection and linkages
- List of data fields included in data repository
- Data access, data transfer and/or material transfer agreements
Complete all sections of the application form. If a section is not relevant to your proposed research, please indicate “not applicable”.
All appendices must be appropriately labelled and included in the order described above. Please number the pages in the submission.
Text must be in a legible font size, normally no smaller than 11 pts. All documents must be submitted in English.
Each application must be submitted as a stand-alone document. Previous submissions may be mentioned, but all required content must be included in the current submission (i.e., do not refer to another submission to provide details needed in this one).
Undergraduate thesis research
Undergraduate students must initially submit their application for unit-level review (to get department, school or faculty research ethics approval) prior to submission to the university's Research Ethics Board.
Submissions that have received unit-level approval (indicated on section 1.2 of the application form) are eligible for a streamlined review by the Research Ethics Board. The exceptions are research that is more than minimal risk, or where unit-level review is not available, in which case the research ethics application may be submitted directly to the Research Ethics Board.
Course-based (non-thesis) research that is minimal risk may be reviewed and approved at the unit level.
Undergraduate thesis students should only be the named Principal Investigator (lead researcher) on a research ethics file when it is foreseeable that they will complete the full scope of the proposed research during their academic program. In cases where the research may extend past the term of any single student's involvement, the research ethics submission should be made by the faculty supervisor, with student(s) named as other involved study personnel (that can evolve over time). In effect, if the lab is doing the research rather than the individual student, the supervising faculty member should be the Principal Investigator on the research ethics submission responsible for the ethical conduct of the research.
In the event that a student is named as Principal Investigator (PI), and that student does not complete the full scope of the research by program completion, the supervising faculty member may, normally with the student PI's written agreement, take over as Principal Investigator for the project. Researchers are responsible for considering the scholarly integrity issues related to such a change, such as ownership of data.
An electronic copy of the complete submission package (application form and appendices) must be submitted as a single electronic file in MS Word or PDF format. This single file should be named "REB Submission [researcher’s last name]" and submitted by electronic mail attachment to ethics@dal.ca.
The submission should come from the lead researcher (PI) at Dalhousie University. Students and post-doctoral fellows must copy their supervisor on the electronic submission.
Applications are accepted any time during office hours. The monthly deadline dates are available above and constitute the deadlines for research requiring review at a board meeting. Please note that no reviews are conducted in August. Submissions must be received by 4:00 p.m. on the deadline day. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed.
What to include
A single electronic document that includes finalized copies of:
- Application form
- Reference list
- Permission or support/cooperation letters (e.g. School Board, Director of a long-term care facility, anyone whose cooperation or permission you need to recruit participants or conduct research)
- Research agreements (required for research involving Indigenous communities)
- Recruitment documents (posters, oral scripts, online postings, invitations to participate, etc.)
- Screening documents
- Consent/assent documents or scripts
- Research instruments (questionnaires, interview or focus group questions, etc.)
- Debriefing and/or study results templates
- List of data fields included in data repository
- Confidentiality agreements
- Application form
- Reference list
- Steward/Custodian approval, support/cooperation correspondence
- Research agreements (required for research involving Indigenous communities)
- Original and/or new consent documents
- Data capture sheet/list of data fields, variables, survey items
- Flow diagram outlining data collection and linkages
- List of data fields included in data repository
- Data access, data transfer and/or material transfer agreements
Submission deadlines
Submissions for research ethics review are accepted at any time, however please note that no reviews are conducted in August.
The following deadlines are applied to those projects that require review at a research ethics board meeting. This includes projects that are more than minimal risk, which deal with alterations to consent, people who may be vulnerable in the context of the research, research involving dual roles or conflicts of interest, novel methods or projects which the board believes would benefit from contributions of the whole board. Complete submissions must be received no later than 4:00 p.m.
- Monday, January 6
- Monday, February 3
- Monday, March 3
- Monday, April 7
- Monday, May 5
- Monday, June 2
- Monday, July 7
- Monday, September 8
- Monday, October 6
- Monday, November 3
- Monday, December 1
Research at affiliated hospitals
Researchers who intend to use IWK Health Centre, Nova Scotia Health Authority or Horizon Health Network facilities or data, or recruit their patients, must contact the ethics offices in these institutions first to determine whether a submission should be made to their research ethics boards, rather than to Dalhousie.
Research approved by the research ethics boards at these hospitals does not additionally require Research Ethics Board (REB) approval at Dalhousie. However, research approved by the Dalhousie Research Ethics Board does additionally require REB approval by these institutions.
Ongoing ethical responsibilities
After receiving ethical approval for the conduct of research involving humans, there are several ongoing responsibilities that researchers must meet to remain in compliance with university and Tri-Council policies. The following information outlines what you need to know about the responsibilities of researchers after gaining REB approval.
Annual and final reports
Research Ethics Board approval is effective for up to 12 months at a time (as per TCPS article 6.14). Researchers are responsible for the following reporting requirements subsequent to the initial letter of approval from a Research Ethics Board:
a) Submission of an Annual Report for research extending past the most recent effective date of Research Ethics Board approval. After initial Research Ethics Board approval of a research study, the lead researcher is responsible to ensure continuing REB approval of the research for the duration of the study while it involves research participants. Additional review and approval for a subsequent period (or periods) is up to 12 months at a time.
b) Submission of a Final Report. When the researcher is confident that no further involvement of participants will occur (and data collection is complete), the final report may be submitted to Research Ethics. Approved data analysis and writing may be ongoing. In determining whether or not it is appropriate to end REB oversight of the research, researchers should consider issues such as the extent of any remaining risk to participants, the status of any commitments or agreements made to participants, for example, with respect to reporting findings and/or the relative likelihood of future unanticipated events, material incidental findings, or new information. Where there is none, submission of a final report is appropriate and this report will close the Research Ethics file for this project.
- Submit the completed Annual/Final Report form (login required) to Research Ethics, Dalhousie University, by email at ethics@dal.ca at least 21 days prior to the expiry date of your current Research Ethics Board approval.
- Enter subject line: REB# (8-digit number), Last name, Annual (or final) Report.
- Student researchers must copy their supervisor(s) in the cc. line of the Annual / Final Report email.
Your report will be reviewed and any follow-up inquiries will be directed to you. You must respond to inquiries as part of the continuing review process.
Annual reports will be reviewed and may be approved for up to an additional 12 months at a time; you will receive an annual renewal letter of approval from the Board that will include your new REB approval expiry date.
Final reports will be reviewed and acknowledged in writing.
Amendment request
When changes must be made to a research study in order to complete the work that was described in an approved research ethics submission, such changes must be proposed to the Research Ethics Board for ethical review and approval prior to making these changes. This is done by making an amendment request. If you are addressing a new research question or the changes represent a continuation of the study in a new direction, or with a different study population, then this is considered to be a new project requiring a new submission. Pilot studies are reviewed independently from the larger studies that are derived from them.
1. Complete the amendment request form (login required) and append associated documentation. In most cases, this includes: a cover letter explaining the proposed changes and the reasons for them, highlighted changes embedded in the latest approved version of the research ethics submission and highlighting any new research instruments, recruitment material, consent forms, etc. You should also include all approved documentation; the amendment request submission should reflect the full scope of your approved project, with proposed changes highlighted only.
2. Submit the amendment request documentation in a single electronic file (Word or PDF) to Research Ethics by email at ethics@dal.ca
a) Enter subject line: REB# (8-digit REB file number), Last name, Amendment request.
b) The email submission must come from the lead researcher (PI).
c) Student researchers must copy their supervisor in the cc. line of the email.
3. Amendment requests may be submitted at any time (noting that no ethical reviews are conducted in August).
4. Amendment requests will be reviewed by the Research Ethics Board, normally within 4 weeks of receipt. If the REB requests revisions or clarifications, these must be completed and re-submitted for additional ethical review prior to REB approval. Proposed changes may not be implemented until you receive notification of REB approval by email.
Please note: Amendment requests must be submitted as a single electronic MS Word or PDF document. This includes the amendment request form, the cover letter, and the full amended application with changes highlighted.