I am starting a PhD this september involving human volunteers, from whom blood samples need to be taken. My supervisor suggested writing the ethics application late summer. Before I get back to her about this, I wanted to know what an ethics application might involve. I wanted to have some idea at least rather than just asking my supervisor for everything.

Many thanks in advance.

Hi Acrylic- it depends where you need ethical approval from. Are you in the UK? You will probably need school/university ethical approval and you may also need NHS ethical approval. Best to check with your sup. Sometimes the applications are combined so that you don't have to do two separate applications- the university may not ask you to complete their usual forms but may accept the NHS forms before or after you have gained NHS ethical approval. But this varies across universitites. A word of warning- NHS ethical approval forms in particular are very lengthy and will take quite a lot of time to fill out and then there may be a wait of up to a month or so until you get the final verdict. Also, by the time you are filling these forms in you will basically need to know everything about your study in every last detail. On the plus side, once you have gone through the approval system you will know exactly what you are doing! I would definitely ask to see a completed set of forms for a previous project for guidance...if it's your first time going through the ethics system (especially NHS ethics) it can be quite daunting. Good luck with it! KB