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Lower Risk Research

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The Research Ethics and Integrity office will close for business on 24 December 2024 and re-open on Thursday 2 January 2025.
Please note that during the period 16 December 2024 to 13 January 2025 the office will be running at reduced capacity. This will impact our ability to respond to enquiries and progress applications.

 

Lower Risk Research describes research in which the only foreseeable risk is no greater than discomfort. If there is any chance that the research may result in anything more serious than discomfort, the research must be reviewed by the human research ethics committee.

All research involving humans that have risks that are no more than discomfort can be reviewed by one of our faculty (including Institutes) based ethics review panels. Please check the Terms of Reference for Lower Risk Research panels below.

Applications can be submitted through MyResearch, for support in using My Research please see MyResearch Training Hub.

The following resources are available for lower risk research applications and reviewers.

Human Biospecimens

Human Biospecimens refer to any biological material obtained from a person including tissue, blood, urine and sputum; it also includes any derivatives of these such as cell lines. Please see Chapter 3.2 of the National Statement for further information.

Researchers are reminded that when collecting biospecimens for research they should seek specific consent for any future use of biospecimens (both intended use, as well as sharing of biospecimens with other researchers).

Does a student assignment or activity require research ethics review?

Research involving human participants require ethics review.  Such activity may involve the analysis of already collected individual-level human data, or data to be collected by way of survey or interview of people.  But the use of such methods (dataset, survey, interview), in itself, would not make the activity subject to ethics review.  The underlying criterion to trigger the need for ethics review is that such activity is “research” in the academic sense.  The term “research” is sometimes used in a broad generic way covering anything that involves collection and analysis of data.  For the purposes of considering whether an activity requires ethics review, a more considered focus should be applied.  If the intention of such activity is to formally publish as research, then ethics review will be required.  But if the purpose of the activity is in essence an educational or learning exercise for students in the form of a class assignment or assessment piece with no intention of formal publication, then ethics review would not normally be required.  However, if there is an additional further intention that the data would be used for research purposes in the future (eg, an honours project) then ethics review should be obtained before collection. If in doubt check with the office or research ethics coordinator.

Blanket, Course Approval

The following Standard Operating Procedure must be followed for all Blanket Course Approval applications in My Research.

A number of courses of study involve research activities of limited scope and complexity that are undertaken by student researchers as a required component of a course of study.
Given the number of applications and the limited time usually available, it is often impractical for separate ethics applications to be submitted for each individual research activity.
Therefore REI offers course convenors the opportunity to apply for blanket course approval.

To be eligible for processing under these special arrangements a human research activity must meet the following test:

  1. The human research activity is to be undertaken by a cohort of students and it is impractical, because of academic timing constraints and/or the number of students involved, for individual ethics clearance to be sought for individual student projects.
  2. The human research activity is to be undertaken as a small, discrete component of a graduate or postgraduate course or research program.
  3. The research constitutes no greater than low risk research

The course convenor should include in the application for course-based ethics approval an assurance that, if any additional approvals are required for individual student projects – for example, approval from the Department of Education – then such approval has been, or will be, obtained prior to the commencement of research and a copy of this approval will be kept on file by the Course Coordinator and submitted with annual reports.

Student responsibilities
Although the Course Coordinator is ultimately responsible for all student research projects conducted under a course-related ethics approval, student researchers are expected to be aware of their ethical responsibilities and obligations.

Enquiries

Please direct all questions regarding the LNR process to the relevant emails address below. Applications can be submitted at any time.

  • Business, Economics and Law (BEL) bellnr@uq.edu.au
  • Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology (EAIT) - incorporating Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI) and Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) eaitlnr@uq.edu.au
  • Medicine Faculty - incorporating Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) and Centre for Advanced Imaging (CAI) medicinelnr@uq.edu.au
  • Science Faculty - incorporating Global Change Institute (GCI), Queensland Alliance For Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) and Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) sciencelnr@uq.edu.au 
  • Health and Behavioural Sciences (HaBS) habslnr@uq.edu.au
  • Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) - (incorporating Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR) hasslnr@uq.edu.au