Ethics applications: IOE staff
Information for applications reviewed by the IOE Research Ethics Committee (REC).
IOE REC office operations over the Christmas break
Please note the IOE REC office will not be able to offer its usual service over the Christmas period. This is due to extremely limited reviewer availability during this time. From Friday 12 December 2025 (5pm) until Monday 5 January 2026, ethics applications may be submitted but will not be allocated for review. We advise applicants to carefully plan any upcoming research and contact the IOE REC office before the end of November to limit any potential disruption to their work.
Staff ethics guidance
- Expedited review
- Projects previously approved by external institutions
- Amendments to approved projects
- Escalation to UCL Research Ethics Committee
- Research misconduct procedure
All research activities which collect or use data from human participants including secondary data analysis, systematic reviews and pilot studies, are required to gain ethical approval before data collection begins regardless of whether your research is funded or self-funded.
- Staff ethics application guidance
- External researchers ethics guidance – external researchers wishing to recruit staff and IOE students must follow this
- Research with children – guidance on data protection issues
- Resources for all IOE research
Ethics review applications
- Please complete your staff ethics application form for review by the IOE Research Ethics Committee.
- Then submit using this MS Form: Submit ethics application
Expedited review
Expedited review (full ethics review that is conducted quickly and at short notice) may be granted in exceptional circumstances. Our definition draws on UKRI, ESRC and UCL material on what can be considered for expedited review. The PI must firstly gain permission for an expedited review by making it clear in an email to the IOE Research Ethics Office at ioe.researchethics@ucl.ac.uk on how they meet the following:
- Access to a sample that is time-related.
- A short lead time due to the circumstances of a particular funding framework.
- Fieldwork is linked to a particular event or period.
And these have been caused by external drivers which are outside the control of the researcher.
Please note expedited reviews will not be offered for:
- circumstances that are foreseeable or preventable
- claims that the applicant was unaware of the ethics application submission process and/or associated review timelines.
This request for permission will normally be reviewed by the IOE REC Chair, and the response given within one to two working days. If permission is not granted, then the usual standard review timeframe will be followed.
We understand that applicants and reviewers are working within competing work commitments. Please note that expedited reviews are reserved for the above situations to limit undue pressure on applicants, reviewers and the IOE REC office.
Ethics application processing timeframe
Projects previously approved by external institutions
For those seeking IOE approval or recording for a project that received ethical approval elsewhere, please complete sections 1, 9 and 10 of the ethics form. Please, send the completed form, all documents supplied to the external research institution, and the copy of the approval letter issued by the external research ethics committee to ioe.researchethics@ucl.ac.uk.
Amendments to approved projects
For those who are seeking amendments to projects previously approved by the IOE Research Ethics Committee:
Please complete this amendment form for review by the IOE Research Ethics Committee:
- And email the form and requested documents, including updated ethics application, and participant information sheets, consent forms and recruitment adverts where applicable to ioe.researchethics@ucl.ac.uk.
There will be a triage system according to the criteria (to establish whether it needs to be reviewed by the Chair of the Committee or whether it requires a full ethics review.
Please note the processing time for such requests is the same as the ethics application review timeframes.
Review by UCL Research Ethic Committee
There are particular circumstances when research ethics applications are deemed high-risk by the UCL Research Ethics Committee. Projects are classified as high-risk in accordance with the UCL high-risk criteria which can be found in the following document:
Researchers within the IOE are advised to check these criteria. If they feel their proposed research might meet any of the criteria, they should contact the UCL Research Ethics Committee directly on ethics@ucl.ac.uk to have their high-risk projects reviewed. They should also notify the IOE Research Ethics Office on ioe.researchethics@ucl.ac.uk.
There may be instances where applications submitted to the IOE Research Ethics Committee would need to be redirected to the UCL Research Ethics Committee should the project meet the high-risk criteria. Applicants are advised to check the criteria before preparing their IOE ethics application, to avoid the duplication of efforts as the UCL Research Ethics Committee may request the submission of a UCL high-risk ethics application Researchers can approach the IOE Research Ethics Office for assistance in determining the risk within their projects.
Research misconduct procedure
In the event a complaint or allegation of misconduct regarding an IOE research project is submitted to the Chair of the IOE Research Ethics Committee (REC), in line with UCL's Procedure for investigating and resolving allegations of misconduct in academic research (please see section A6 of the procedure).
IOE procedures for investigating and resolving research misconduct allegations are laid out in the IOE Research Misconduct Policy.