Faculty of Education Research Ethics Committee FREC Ethics Review Application Procedure As from September 2013 all those who submit an application for Ethics Review to FREC and UREC are to follow the following procedure: 1. Applicants are not to seek institutional consent for research from the Education Directorate or any other equivalent institution before they have submitted an Ethics Review Form to FREC and before this Ethics Review Form has been accepted by FREC. 2. Applicants should on no condition seek formal consent from any individuals before they have submitted an Ethics Review Form to FREC and before this Ethics Review Form has been accepted by FREC. 3. Applicants may speak informally to gatekeepers (like Head of School or equivalent institution) about access to a field site. However, they should not seek formal consent from any individual participant before they have submitted an Ethics Review Form to FREC and before this Ethics Review Form has been accepted by FREC. 4. Applicants should submit the Ethics Review Form together with DRAFT copies of Information Sheets and Consent Forms and any other relevant documents, to the Secretary of FREC, Ms Isabelle Warrington, at Room 104a, Level -1, Faculty of Media and Knowledge Sciences Building (MaKS). 5. Once the Ethics Review Form has been accepted by FREC, applicants may then proceed to get institutional permission and/or individual permission (consent) from participants. They should not, however, begin to collect data until they have been given 1 final approval Committee). from UREC (University Research Ethics 6. The institutional permission may then be shown to the Education Directorate or equivalent authority to get approval for research. 7. UREC is now asking for both a scanned and a hard copy of the ethics proposal together with institutional permission and supporting documents that have been approved by FREC. Please ensure that you retain both a scanned and a hard copy of your proposal and documents yourself. 8. Therefore once institutional permission has been obtained, a scanned copy of the Ethics Review Form together with supporting documents as approved by FREC, and the relevant institutional permissions, should be sent to FREC (Ms Warrington – isabelle.warrington@um.edu.mt ) as a single PDF document. The name of the document should be the reference number of the application, followed by the applicant’s name (EDU-000-15 – Joe Bloggs). 9. In addition a hard copy of the institutional permissions and relevant approval documents (from the Education Directorate, other institution, Head of School etc) should then be taken to FREC (Ms Warrington), who will add them to the applicants’ Ethics Review application and forward it to UREC for final approval. 10.Signed Consent/Assent Forms from individual participants should not be attached with the Ethics Review Form (it would be a breach of confidentiality if FREC sees these). Only the unsigned templates of the forms are required by FREC/UREC. 11. FREC will then forward the applicant’s Ethics Review Form, together with all supporting documents including relevant institutional permissions to UREC for approval. 12. You are kindly requested to fill in the coversheet of the Form sections 5a, b, and c if they are applicable, even if official permission is still pending. FREC will check that all your documents are in place before forwarding them to UREC. 2 Applicants are reminded that they should not collect data before they have been formally informed by FREC that UREC has accepted their application. The Ethics Review process takes about two to three months. The process would be smoother and faster if applicants follow the procedures, attach all relevant documents and fill the Ethics Review Form as carefully as possible. Applicants are therefore encouraged to start preparing for this some time before they wish to collect data. Professor Mary Darmanin Chairperson for FREC, September 2013 3