Ethical clearance

If you're conducting research that involves human subjects or animals, you must follow UQ's ethical clearance procedures. 

All research students - from undergraduates up to and including HDR (Higher Degree by Research) students - must apply for ethical clearance. You'll also need to apply for clearance if you use animals for teaching purposes.

Human ethics

The University has stringent guidelines for protecting the welfare and rights of human subjects who participate in research projects, including interviews, questionnaires and surveys.

If your research project involves data collection of this nature - even if responses are anonymous - you'll need ethical clearance.

Human ethics clearance procedures

Read our summary of human ethics clearance procedures (PDF, 72kB).

Apply for human ethics clearance

To apply for ethical clearance for a research proposal, you'll need to download and fill in our application form for human ethics clearance (Word, 145kB).

The application process takes time - you'll need to prepare any required paperwork, such as consent forms, information sheets and risk assessments, and ask your supervisor or academic advisor to complete and sign the form's declaration.

Note: application reviews generally take between two and four weeks to process, but they can occasionally take up to eight weeks, particularly if they're submitted during non-teaching periods.

Contact us

Contacts for more information:

• Dr Sebastien Darchen (Geography and Planning)
• Dr Karen McNamara (Environment)
• University of Queensland Human Research Ethics officers

Animal ethics

You must get Animal Ethics Committee (AEC) approval for any scientific use of animals - including laboratory research or teaching.

If you plan to use live non-human vertebrates, cephalopods or crustaceans you'll need approval before you start work.

Apply for animal ethics clearance

For more information, and to apply, visit the Animal Ethics pages of the UQ Research integrity and compliance website.