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Research and knowledge exchange

Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught Research Covid 19 Guidance

Important - Before submitting a new ethics application or amending a previously approved study please read  the webpages published by the Health, Safety and Wellbeing team and in particular the section entitled ‘Travel on University business & off-site working’. This section contains key information relating to the restrictions for field work for staff and students.

Any new ethics application or amendment requires you to have considered this information before submission.

Given the current health crisis, it will be expected that taught students who wish to undertake  research which usually involves face to face participant contact (such as interviews or focus groups) will need to adapt their studies and their research methods to account for current health and safety guidelines.

Although the University wishes to support the recommencement of research, this must be in a way that is safe for all research stakeholders and within the principles set out to ensure a safe and healthy campus.

The Research Governance team recommends the general use of MS Teams for online research interviews and collaborative interactions.

Guidance on the use of video conferencing platforms in research and ethics review

Adapting Studies

The process for making such alterations (for ‘low risk’ studies) will usually be through an amendment submitted to the SREO/C-REC that approved the research.

1 - Participant-facing research that usually takes place via in-person interaction and cannot be undertaken safely should now take place online using Skype for Business, Zoom or MS Teams. Online surveys should be conducted using  Research data, when researchers cannot access their usual University drives should be held in either Box or OneDrive.

 2 - Consent Forms and Participant Information Sheets should clearly indicate these methods and provide active consent and details of where any online data collected will be stored (i.e. using University approved storage and systems)

 3 - Any recordings made of participants will be stored securely within University systems and details given to participants of when the data will be destroyed. 

Details of SREOs and C-REC administrators can be found on the Research Governance webpages .

Travel, Field Trips and Off Campus Research

International travel for Undergraduate students or taught master’s students will not be considered for inclusion as essential travel for research at the present time. This does not apply to incoming students travel to the UK. Please visit http://www.sussex.ac.uk/hso/specialist/hscovidpage for the most up to date information.