Human Research Ethics
The University of Calgary promotes high ethics standards consistent with the Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS2 2022), Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans thereby ensuring respect for persons, concern for their welfare and justice
All research, funded or unfunded, involving humans, their data, or human biological materials conducted within the University of Calgary’s jurisdiction or under its auspices, regardless of where the research is conducted must be reviewed by, and receive approval from, the appropriate University of Calgary Research Ethics Board (REB) before research begins.
Research is defined as “an undertaking intended to extend knowledge through a disciplined inquiry and/or systematic investigation” (TCPS2: p 13)
There are two REBs that review research applications: The Conjoint Faculties Research Ethics Board (CFREB) and the Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board (CHREB).
Conjoint Faculties Research Ethics Board
The CFREB reviews applications from researchers affiliated with following faculties: Arts, Engineering, Environmental Design, Law, Science, Social Work, Veterinary Medicine, Institutes associated with any of these faculties, Haskayne School of Business, Werklund School of Education, and Libraries and Cultural Resources.
Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board
The CHREB reviews applications from researchers affiliated with the faculties of Kinesiology, Nursing, and the Cumming School of Medicine. The CHREB is the board of record for researchers in any Faculty who will be using personal health information (i.e., diagnostic, treatment, or care information held by a health care custodian such as Alberta Health Services) for research purposes.
Training
As of September 1, 2018, in keeping with national standards, all University of Calgary researchers (i.e., faculty, students, residents, postdoctoral fellows, and research staff) engaging in research with humans must complete human research ethics training prior to submitting an application for ethics review. This training requirement can be fulfilled by completing either of the below and uploading the certificate to your Researcher Profile in IRISS.
TCPS2 CORE Tutorial, or CITI Human Subjects Research Course (Biomedical or Social Behavioral-Educational module, whichever is most relevant to your discipline)Principal Investigators are responsible for ensuring that all study team members have one of the above training modules complete. These must be available upon request.
Download the Researcher Profile User Guide for instructions on uploading the certificate to your Researcher Profile in IRISS.