This site offers guidance on ethical issues that may arise when technology research involves the participation of people outside of the research team.
The School provides ethics advice or review only to cases referred from departmental or other University committees - please refer to your Departmental Research Ethics Team in the first instance.
School of Technology Ethical Code for Research
The School attaches considerable importance to the maintenance of high ethical standards in the research undertaken by its academic and research staff and students, whether supported directly by the School or funded from external sources. Research undertaken in the School should conform to generally accepted ethical principles and the values of the University of Cambridge. The School provides relevant Research Ethics guidance which complements this.
The Ethical Code for Research sets out the importance to the School of continued high ethical standards in the research undertaken by its academic and research staff and students, whether supported directly by the School or funded from external sources.
Research Ethics Committee
Research in the School of Technology is governed by the University Research Ethics Committee (UREC). Further information on UREC can be found here.
The School of Technology Research Ethics Committee provides guidance on Departmental processes and policies, and facilitates the independent review of the ethics of a piece of proposed research work referred by Departmental Committees.
The School of Technology Research Ethics Committee is part of the University process of ethics and integrity review for research and provides advice to Departments, facilitate an ethical review of proposed research work escalated from a Department and investigate any potential breach of Departmental or School ethics policy when requested.
The School Ethics panel either refers escalated reviews to an appropriate School Panel or Specialist Panel. In some circumstances, departmental ethics bodies may refer specific cases to UREC.
Departmental Ethical Review Links
Each Department in the School has a defined process for review and approval of research carried out by its staff and students involving human participants. The following links should be followed for information about the policy and process in specific departments:
- Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, with queries as to applications to research@cisl.cam.ac.uk
- Department of Computer Science and Technology
- Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (CEB only Teams Channel)
- Department of Engineering
- Cambridge Judge Business School Guidance is available on CJBS intranet. Queries can be directed to research-support@jbs.cam.ac.uk
Sources of Information within the University
The University of Cambridge Research Integrity website has a wealth of information on all types of Research Ethics particularly research involving human participants and personal data.
Research Operations Office Research Ethics pages are a source of useful information