This procedure is designed to deal with the following two situations:
i) Where the IRB has rejected an application for ethics approval (for reasons other than the application being incomplete) and the researcher applicant wishes to appeal.
ii) Where the IRB has approved an application for ethics approval, subject to some changes being made and the researcher disagrees with the proposed changes. In this case, before making a formal appeal, the researcher should initially confer with the chairperson for clarification of the board’s reasoning. After this consultation, if the researcher is not satisfied then s/he can make a formal appeal as outlined below.
• If the researcher wishes to appeal a decision made as part of the approval process, s/he must notify the IRB chairperson through the member secretary. The appeal should be in writing and must be sent via post or email within 14 days of being notified of that decision.
• The chairperson can appoint a committee independent of the IRB who will then review the application and give recommendations to the IRB.
• The membership of the panel shall be at the discretion of the IRB chairperson.
• Once the panel has reached its decision, the panel chairperson can give the recommendations of the committee to the IRB, based on which the IRB can make an amended decision. This decision cannot be appealed against, using the procedure described above.
