Getting the best from IRAS

Authorisations and / or declarations from investigators, radiation experts, sponsor representatives, academic supervisors etc. will be required on most forms for a submission to be considered valid.

For applications to NHS RECs, electronic authorisation is now mandatory, and many other review bodies now encourage or require the use of electronic authorisation as an alternative to providing hard copy/written signatures.

Some studies still require ink signatures and in these cases IRAS will disable electronic authorisation.

Note: There is no need for a study to provide both written and electronic authorisation.

The guidance you need with respect to authorisations, will depend on whether you are:

• Applying for research approvals / permissions; and therefore requesting authorisations; or
• Responsible for providing authorisations.

The following pages provide relevant guidance in each of these situations.