e-Pathway: who can help?

Research Ethics, Governance and Integrity Team facilitates the University’s research ethics and governance processes for all staff and postgraduate student research projects. The team works with the University’s Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS) and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) research ethics committees to ensure that all research projects requiring University ethics review receive this as appropriate. Where required the Team will manage Sponsorship of research projects in line with the Health and Social Care Research, which sets out principles of good practice in the management of health and social care research in the UK. 

If you require information or guidance about research ethics and governance processes at the University of Birmingham, including information about university sponsorship, application to research ethics committees, and advice on regulatory requirements, please email researchgovernance@contacts.bham.ac.uk. You can also contact members of the Research Ethics, Governance and Integrity Team directly.

The CRCT is part of the Research Office in the College of Medical and Dental Science, University of Birmingham. The CRCT has three core areas of focus: (1) developing and maintaining the QMS, (2) conducting compliance reviews, and (3) providing training and support. The CRCT cover all of the UoB’s clinical research activity, including any involving the use of human tissue. 

The CRCT works closely together with the Research Governance, Ethics and Integrity Team to ensure new clinical research projects are set up in accordance with the UoB’s QMS. For independent chief investigator (CI)-managed CTIMPs, the CRCT can provide a service to perform on-site monitoring as per the trial-specific monitoring plan; it is expected this is suitably costed as part of the grant application process. The CRCT reports to the Clinical Trials Oversight Committee (CTOC) and the Human Tissue Oversight Committee (HTOC) (see Clinical Research Oversight Committees), and liaises with UoB staff where issues are noted, to ensure proper corrective and preventative action plans are put in place. 

See the CRCT webpages for more information. 

When and how to contact the CRCT?

The CRCT can be contacted at any point during your project. The CRCT does offer project set up support to staff who are in the process of setting up a clinical research project, which is particularly useful to those setting up a project for the first time. 

To ensure your queries are assigned to the correct person and answered as quickly and efficiently as possible, please send all queries to the team's mailbox (crct@contacts.bham.ac.uk).

The UoB has two oversight committee: Clinical Trials Oversight Committee (CTOC) and the Human Tissue Oversight Committee (HTOC). These committees provide oversight of all clinical research activities across the University, and integrates the various colleges, institutes, departments and research units providing support to clinical investigators.

See Clinical Research Oversight Committees for more details, including the committees’ terms of reference, membership and contact details. 

The NIHR Research Support Service (RSS) provides support and advice to researchers developing funding applications and at all stages of the research pathway - from pre-application through to post-award support through collaboration with our CTUs.

The service is delivered by eight ‘Hubs’, each a partnership of research groups, organisations and clinical trials units (CTUs) with expertise in applied health and care research (Birmingham, Imperial, Kings, Lancaster, Leicester, Newcastle, Southampton, York). There are Specialist Centres for Social Care - Lancaster and for Public Health – Newcastle and Southampton. The RSS is a national service, and each hub and Specialist Centre is open to researchers based anywhere in England. The RSS can support researchers in the devolved nations if they are working in collaboration with English partners. Please visit the RSS website for more information about the service and Hubs offerings.

Delivered through Birmingham Health Partners (BHP) and the Institute of Translational Medicine (ITM), Research FIRST provides a flexible and innovate approach to supporting non-CTIMP research and other projects (for example, Clinical Audits, Service Evaluations and Management Databases). Research FIRST can do as little as provide your team with access to REDCap, or as much as full management and delivery of your project. For a full list of areas that Research FIRST can provide support on, visit their website.

The Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit (BCTU) is a UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC)-registered Clinical Trials Units. The BCTU undertakes CTIMPs and non-CTIMPs, diagnostic and test evaluation studies, systematic reviews and methodological research across a wide range of diseases. The main trial research portfolios are listed below.

Visit ‘About us’ to find out more about the BCTU.

The Cancer Research Clinical Trials Unit (CRCTU) is a UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC)-registered Clinical Trials Units. The CRCTU specialises in the design, conduct and analysis of phase I to III cancer clinical trials and early phase non-cancer trials for adults and children in a number of diseases (see main disease areas below). The CRCTU delivers UoB lead UK only and international trials, as well as delivering trials in the UK for international sponsors. 

• Cancer: breast, central nervous system, colorectal, haematological, head & neck, lung, hepatobiliary cancer, paediatric cancer and urological cancer.
• Non-cancer: cardiology, inflammatory diseases, neurology, ophthalmology and rare diseases.

 Visit ‘About us’ to find out more about the CRCTU.