Research office permission
The Department of Health requires that any research project with human participants, their organs, tissue or data must have permission from an NHS research and development office prior to commencing. In line with this requirement, all research projects involving human tissue from Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust ’s patients (whether newly acquired or stored) must be registered with the Trust's research office, and comply with relevant policies and procedures.
Groups using tissue from donors who are not Trust patients may obtain permission from the research and development office of another NHS Trust, if appropriate.
For more information, contact the Trust's research office or visit the research pages.
Research ethics committee review
The Department of Health requires that research projects involving patients, service users, care professionals or volunteers, or their organs, tissues or data, must have been reviewed and received a favourable opinion from an NHS research ethics committee (or equivalent, i.e. a gene therapy advisory committee) before the study can start. Research and development approval cannot be given without a favourable ethical opinion being obtained.
Contact the Trust's research office for more information on how to apply for ethical review by an NHS research ethics committee, or see the Health Research Authority's website.
Governance requirements for any research using human tissue
Unless otherwise specified, all groups or individuals storing tissue for research on the following premises must comply with Trust tissue governance requirements:
- Royal Brompton Hospital
- Harefield Hospital
- Heart Science Centre
- Guy Scadding Building
- Emmanuel Kaye Building
- Certain groups in Sir Alexander Fleming Building - view a list of specified groups.
More detail on what groups and individuals must do to comply with requirements can be found in the Trust's research tissue governance guidance document (PDF, 593KB).
Training for researchers using human tissue
All researchers intending to conduct, or conducting, research using relevant material must complete and sign the mandatory tissue governance training form (PDF, 100KB) to demonstrate that all relevant policies and procedures have been read and agreed to.
Face-to-face training in research tissue governance is also held on a periodic basis. View dates and times of training sessions.