Note: The submission deadline is only relevant for ethics applications that require full board review at a monthly MREB meeting. The vast majority of projects submitted to MREB (>95%) are considered minimal risk and qualify for delegated review, can be submitted at any time, and do not have to wait for a meeting to receive MREB approval. The time between the submission deadline and the meeting allows at least a week for MREB members to review the application prior to the meeting, and time for the research ethics officer to conduct the administrative check and work with the researcher to address completeness issues in the application prior to review, if necessary. Please contact the MREB Ethics Office if you think your project is greater than minimal risk and want to confirm if you will need to submit by the deadline. See the TCPS2 for a discussion of what constitutes minimal risk research.
The review times below are approximate and can fluctuate based on the current volume of applications and the review workload of the MREB (or SREC) Chairs. Note that the Research Ethics Officer conducts an administrative check of submissions and if an incomplete/unclear application is submitted this will add to the times below, as the Research Ethics Officer will request edits before the application can be sent for ethics review.
Standard Applications and Course-Based Applications: MREB/SREC provides review feedback about 4 – 6 weeks after a complete application is submitted.
Review of Revised Applications and Amendments: Reviewing Chairs aim to review and respond to revised submissions in about 1 week.
Applications with External REB Clearance: MREB provides review feedback about 1-2 weeks after a complete application is submitted.
Amendments to Existing Applications: MREB/SREC provides review feedback about 1-2 weeks after a complete amendment form is submitted. Amendments involving substantial changes in risk to participants will take longer.
Conditional Release of Funds Requests: These applications are processed by the Research Ethics Officer and are usually approved within 1-2 days.
Note that the following situations generally result in longer review times:
Full Board Review: Research determined to be more than minimal risk will require full board review at one of the monthly MREB meetings and subsequent review by a subcommittee of MREB members. Some full board reviews require additional review by an expert ad hoc advisor if there are unique risks/methods with which MREB is unfamiliar.
International Research: For most international research, MREB relies on the input of an ad hoc advisor familiar with the local context of the study to provide an assessment of potential ethical concerns from the local perspective. Contacting your suggested expert and ensuring they are available to advise MREB before you list them in the application will prevent delays.
Research with Indigenous Communities/Populations: If community engagement is not conducted prior to the MREB submission, and needs to be done as part of confirming the partnership with the community and providing sufficient study details as agreed to by the community, then the total time from application submission to clearance will likely be longer to allow for sufficient community engagement. See Chapter 9 of the TCPS2 for information on conducting research with Indigenous communities and populations.
The following is a list of Members of the MREB. Please note that members are listed with their department or affiliation.
Administrative Support (non-members)
If you have questions or wish to book a consultation, please email or call 905-525-9140 x23142.
The mission of the McMaster Research Ethics Board (MREB) is to ensure research involving human participants carried out under the auspices of McMaster University is of the highest quality, is conducted to protect the interests of human participants and of society and is in compliance with the Tri Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans. The REB shall function as an autonomous entity.
The MREB shall consist of at least 10 members and shall have a sufficient number of members to allow for a reasonable review workload for all members. The MREB membership shall comply with the TCPS membership requirements in Article 6.4 and shall include adequate expertise in the relevant research disciplines. MREB members shall be without conflict of interest in the review process and shall disclose actual, perceived or potential conflicts of interest at the outset of a review.
The MREB members shall be appointed by the President, on the recommendation of the Vice-President, Research, following consultation with the current MREB Chair, and including consultation with Faculty Deans and program and department Chairs as applicable. MREB members shall serve, normally, for staggered three year terms, once renewable. The Chair and Vice-Chair(s) shall be appointed by the President and shall serve, normally, for a term of three years, once renewable. The recruitment of the Chair or Vice-Chair(s) shall be the responsibility of the Vice-President, Research, and may be in consultation with the current Chair and Vice-Chair(s) as well as the ethics office staff. It is preferable, but not mandatory, that the new Chair or Vice-Chair(s) be appointed from among the current, appointed MREB members.
For full board ethics review of proposed research, quorum shall be constituted by meeting the TCPS quorum requirements (Article 6.9) and having at least 40% of the membership present for the discussion and vote.
For conducting general business (e.g. approving agenda/minutes/guidelines), quorum shall be constituted by meeting the TCPS quorum requirements (Article 6.9).
The MREB will also meet any additional quorum requirements resulting from specific funding sources or local regulations on a case by case basis. For instance, for full board review of proposed research with United States government funding, MREB will meet the 50% plus one quorum threshold required by US regulations (in addition to the TCPS requirements).