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3. Submission

Once you have prepared your application for research approvals / permission, the next step is to prepare to your forms:

  • First for the appropriate authorisation(s); and then
  • For submission to each of the relevant review bodies. In this section we will show you how IRAS can help you do this (including the role of the Checklist).

You always submit forms for authorisation or to the relevant review bodies for research approvals / permission. Although the forms and full project dataset appear similar – only forms have a ‘Submission’ or ‘E-submission’ tab (the Full Set of Project Data never has these tabs).

Checking your forms are complete

There are two ways to check that a form is complete and ready for authorisation(s) and/or submission:

  • Using the ‘Check your form’ button.
    This function will only work if you have used the Completion Tracking Tool to mark questions as completed; and/or by
  • Reviewing your form page by page.
    You can either do this online by visiting each page of the form and using the ‘Next’ buttons to move through the form systematically; or from hard copy by printing a draft of your form. If you have systematically filled in the Full Set of Project Data, then all your forms will be complete.

You always submit forms for authorisation or to the relevant review bodies for research approvals / permission. Although the forms and full project dataset appear similar, only forms have a ‘Submission’ or ‘E-submission’ tab (the Full Set of Project Data never has these tabs).

Note: Each review body requires specific documentation to be submitted in a specific format, with appropriate authorisations in place. IRAS can help you do this, but this may not complete the process of applying for a review. Some review bodies (e.g. NHS Research Ethics Committees) also require that you pre-book a slot at a meeting, so it is advisable to read the submission guidance (under the ‘Submission’ or ‘E-submission’ tabs of each form) well in advance, and plan what you need to do and when to plan your submission.