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Research & Innovation

On-Campus Human Participant Research and McMaster COVID-19 Requirements

Approvals to Conduct In-Person On-Campus Research with Human Participants

  1. In-person human participant research taking place at a McMaster location no longer requires approval from your Vice/Associate Dean Research (V/ADR). However, all McMaster University policies, including required and recommended COVID-19 precautions, must be followed.
  2. Obtain research ethics clearance through the appropriate REB. For projects with previous REB clearance, adding in-person participant research or resuming in-person research (that was halted due to COVID-19) may require submission of an amendment request to the appropriate REB. For more information see HiREB or MREB details on COVID-19 and REB review.
  3. Researchers and participants are expected to follow the COVID-19 precautions for their study (e.g., self-assessment screening, physical distancing, masking, etc.) outlined in their approved MREB or HiREB ethics application.
  4. Researchers are expected to use the on-campus COVID-19 information letter for research with human participants. The letter template should be edited per your study details and included in the REB submission. For studies reviewed by HiREB, the COVID information letter does not need to be included in the HiREB submission.

Vaccination Mandate and COVID-19 Safety Protocols

  1. As of May 1, 2022, there is no vaccination requirement for research participants coming to campus, whether the participant is a McMaster student/staff/faculty or community member.
  2. On the day of the study appointment, research participants are expected to contact the researcher to reschedule the appointment if they have COVID-19 symptoms, have a confirmed case of COVID-19, or are living with someone with a confirmed case of COVID-19, and subsequently are directed to self-isolate by the Ontario COVID-19 self-assessment. Participants are informed of this in the COVID-19 information letter.
  3. If the research is being conducted at an off-campus site, including our host hospitals or MIP, research participants must adhere to site-specific protocols in addition to McMaster’s requirements.
  4. Clinical faculty who are based at hospital sites are required to follow the COVID-19 procedures and policies for both McMaster and their host hospital site.