Welcome to the Education and Health Sciences Research Ethics Web Page. Research is important. It is one of the "raison d'etres" of a university. A university's infrastructure's purpose is to facilitate research, indeed to promote it. Yet there is also a need to safeguard those who are the subject of such research.
Traditionally, ethical approval of research has been seen as an issue for medical/clinical research. It is now recognised that the responsibility extends beyond those previous boundaries and applies to all research projects where humans are involved.
The Research Ethics Committee is charged by the University to consider the ethics of proposed research projects which will involve human subjects and to agree or not, as is the case, as to whether the projected research is ethical.
The Research Ethics Committee must be consulted about any research proposals which involve:
direct experimentation on individuals;
surveys or questionnaires administered to individuals;
use of data derived from individual records where individuals might be identified.
Research on patients (i.e. people who are receiving treatment as a result of an illness) is not within the remit of the Committee and should be referred to the Mid-Western Regional Hospital Research Ethics Committee. Documentation within this Web Site should help identify prospective research which should be referred to the University of Limerick Research Ethics Committee.
