Research Compliance Newsletter - September 2021 Edition

Welcome to our third Research Compliance update for 2021. It is continuing to be an extremely busy year for our team, with increasing activity at Mater Research.  Read on to learn more …

With the recent lockdown and associated restrictions affecting how research activities can be conducted, we have been very happy with the response from research teams and the adjustments that have been made to continue research.  Thank you for submitting your safety reports to advise Research Compliance of your modified activities.

Team update

Welcome to our newest team member, Eloise French.  Eloise joins us as an Agreements Officer and will be working part time in the office alongside our other Agreements Officer, Neve Fraser.

Important!

Data management

During lockdowns or work from home periods (including rostered WFH to meet spacing restrictions), maintaining data safety is paramount.

Patient information and clinical data must remain in the safety of Mater firewall security on Mater systems and must never be copied to USB sticks or portable hard drives or saved locally on your laptop.

If access to confidential (contact information) and restricted information (patient information and clinical data) cannot be obtained through Mater VPN systems while working from home, then this type of research may only occur on-site.

Document updates

Mater Catholic wording update

The PICF guidance document has been updated to reflect changes to the Catholic wording for pregnancy avoidance.  This update is to both simplify and ensure there is clarity around ‘effective method’. It is hoped that with this new recommended wording, the Master PICF wording, that may describe specific methods of contraception can remain unchanged, and the additional information provided in the updated guidance document is added to the site specific PICF document. The update has undergone review by MML Human Research Ethics Committee, with support from the Interim Chief of Mission and the Mission sub-committee of the Mater Board. The updated document can be found on the Mater Research website via this link

Mater Site Specific PICF Template available for download

The HREC Office has developed a Template PICF (suitable for Low and Negligible Risk) that includes all essential formatting, together with instructions on information to include under each heading. The template can be downloaded from the Mater Research website via this link. If your project is Greater than Low Risk, please also refer to the NHMRC PICF templates available via this link for further guidance.

Congratulations

Congratulations to our Research Compliance Manager, Dr Julie Cichero, who is a finalist in the WiT 2021 ‘Advancing Science Professional’ awards category.   The great work done by Mater researchers has also been acknowledged with several of them being WiT Awards finalists – Prof. Josephine Forbes, Dr Sandy Richardson and PhD candidate Chloe Yap. Congratulations to you all and we wish you the best of luck!

Congratulations to our Senior Research Agreements Officer, Raunak Prasad, who was admitted to the Supreme Court in Queensland and is now officially recognised as a lawyer! 

Reminders 

Internet Explorer is no longer supported by Microsoft. Hence, it is not a supported browser for running ERM. Using ERM on Internet Explorer will result in errors. If you are still using Internet Explorer, you need to change your default browser to the new MS Edge or use a current version of Google Chrome or Firefox. Please contact your IT Support team for assistance if required.

HREC and RGO review statistics

We continue to focus on improving our processes and increasing engagements with research teams to facilitate a streamlined process for timely reviews and action.

Here are some statistics from June to August 2021, showing HREC approvals and Governance authorisations:

HREC:

  • 6 ethics applications approved (3 low risk and 3 greater than low risk) with an average of 34 days with HREC
  • 14 amendments approved with an average of 3.5 days with HREC

RGO:

  • 10 SSA’s authorised with an average of 29 days with RGO
  • 32 amendments authorised with an average of 24 days with RGO

Monitoring update

We are very happy to see the strong response to our new process of engaging with research teams prior to due dates for renewal of ethics approval and annual progress/final report submissions. You will be receiving automatic notifications from ERM at least 30 days before your ethics authorisation will expire, or progress reports will be due. If these are not actioned, the Monitoring Officer will call within 2 weeks of the due date to discuss your plans for submission. If no action is taken before the due date, the study may be suspended. Progress reports can be completed early at any time to avoid notifications and phone calls.

Reminder - Accessing Patient Data for Research Purposes.  If you are a clinician and would like to access patient data for a research project, Research Governance authorisation is required. This involves submitting a Patient Health Information Request Form to the Research Governance Office. This will be forwarded to Privacy Office for review and approval. Once this is approved, Research Governance authorisation will be granted, and you can then request/collect the data. Please do not directly access medical data for research purposes. If you are unsure of the process, please contact the Research Governance Office (research.governance@mater.uq.edu.au).

Agreements update

With the assistance of our growing Agreements team, the Agreements Office is managing to make an impression on the large workload. We are currently working across 192 matters in various stages. If you do have a query about your project, please be sure to use your ‘RID12345’ number to assist us in answering your query.

We reviewed our current statistics for the 2021 calendar year and identified that 284 contracts have been opened and we have executed 159 contracts so far!

With the increase of staff in our team, we have now relocated from the RGO Office (Room 270) to Office 283 (Level 2, Aubigny Place). You can find our office near the open plan print room.

Biosafety and Laboratory Animal Compliance Update

MyResearch update

You may be aware of the continuing issues with MyResearch.  This platform is struggling to manage large applications, resulting in either very slow response times or the system crashing, and other issues are now appearing.  We are in close contact with the UQ Animal Ethics Unit, asking that these issues be given the highest possible priority. Advice from the Animal Ethics Unit is to keep the number of experiments in new Research applications to 5 or less.  If necessary, split your application into multiple smaller ones.  For advice and assistance, please contact Virginia Sheppard, Animal Ethics Coordinator, on v.sheppard@uq.edu.au or contact the Laboratory Compliance team if you need to escalate your issues.

TRI BRF

The Animal Resources Centre (ARC) in Western Australia will be ceasing operation in 12-18 months’ time. UQBR is investigating solutions to ensure continued Laboratory Animal supply. If you have not yet advised UQBR of your estimate of animal requirement for the next 18 months, please advise us at laboratory.compliance@mater.uq.edu.au. We can assist you with lodging this form.

Animal ordering via Mosaic

The UQ Biological Resources animal ordering system has changed! You can now order your animals directly via Mosaic, the Animal Management database. As of COB Friday 3rd September 2021 the Biological Resources Animal Order Request Form is no longer available. All orders previously placed through this form will now be placed directly into the Mosaic Database.

All personnel requesting to purchase animals will require a Mosaic login to order animals. Ensure that you have completed Mosaic Researcher Access Level 1 and Level 1.2 training. Please contact the TRI-BRF Manager or UQBR Orders for further details.

Aubigny Place PC2 Laboratory User Group

Dry ice supplies

Our Operations team are working to secure a regular supply of dry ice. As this process has not yet been finalised, please contact research.operations@mater.uq.edu.au if you need dry ice or have any questions or concerns. Please ensure you allow plenty of time for the ice to be ordered and delivered when making a request. 

ERM update

New functionality for Applicants

Infonetica has introduced new functionality to the Work Area to improve navigation for applicants when locating their projects and related forms:

  • ​A project can be accessed in a new All Projects tile and is useful for applicants with large numbers of projects and folders. Projects can still be accessed under the Projects work area.
  • Applicants can view forms associated with a project from the Project Title row in addition to viewing a form from the Project Tree. Click on the toggle arrow in a project title row and the row will expand displaying a list of related forms, the form status and form owner.
  • The 'Submission Message' page has two new buttons, Back to Project and Print Submission, enabling applicants to directly navigate back to the project and print the form as a PDF.

A new form will soon be available for Exempt projects – the Final Report or Extension Request form.  This form is to be used to submit the Final Report on your Exempt projects or to request an extension to the exemption period.