Research office permission
The Department of Health and Social Care requires that any research project with human participants, their organs, tissue or data must have permission from an NHS research and development office prior to commencing. In line with this requirement, all research projects involving human tissue from patients at Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals (whether newly acquired or stored) must be registered with the our research office, and comply with relevant policies and procedures.
Groups using tissue from donors who are not Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals patients may obtain permission from the research and development office of another NHS Trust, if appropriate.
For more information, contact the our office or visit the research pages.
Research ethics committee review
The Department of Health and Social Care requires that research projects involving patients, service users, care professionals or volunteers, or their organs, tissues or data, must have been reviewed and received a favourable opinion from an NHS research ethics committee (or equivalent, for example a gene therapy advisory committee) before the study can start. Research and development approval cannot be given without a favourable ethical opinion being obtained.
Contact the our research office for more information on how to apply for ethical review by an NHS research ethics committee, or see the Health Research Authority's website.
Governance requirements for any research using human tissue
Unless otherwise specified, all groups or individuals storing tissue for research on the following premises must comply with our tissue governance requirements:
- Royal Brompton Hospital
- Harefield Hospital
- Heart Science Centre
- Guy Scadding Building
- Emmanuel Kaye Building
- Certain groups in Sir Alexander Fleming Building - view a list of specified groups.
Training for researchers using human tissue
All researchers intending to conduct, or conducting, research using relevant material must complete mandatory tissue governance training to demonstrate that all relevant policies and procedures have been read and agreed to.
Face-to-face training in research tissue governance is also held on a periodic basis.