Undertaking Research at MWL

To conduct research at Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospital NHS Trust (MWL) you must follow the national and local process for approvals. Staff within the Research Development & Innovation Department (RDI) can guide you through this process however you will need to have some understanding of the national process beforehand.

1. National Process

To help you understand the research application/approval process please follow the guidance on the Health Research Authority (HRA) website. This will advise what approvals you will require for your study, you apply to the HRA via the IRAS website, this website has many resources including templates of protocols, patient information sheets and consent forms etc. We advise using these templates to ensure all HRA standards are met which will avoid unnecessary delays with your application (templates can be found here IRAS Help - Preparing & submitting applications - Templates for supporting documents (myresearchproject.org.uk).

If you are a student please use the student toolkit on the HRA Website.

2. Local Process

To conduct research at MWL (with staff/patients or data) you must obtain MWL RDI Permission before you commence your study.

MWL RDI Permission is also referred to as “NHS Permission” or “Confirmation of Capacity and Capability” by other organisations. This RDI Permission letter/email will give you the “green light” to start your research, you must not begin your research at either site before you receive this letter/email.

To obtain this please follow point 4 below.

3. Sponsorship and RDI Permission

If you require MWL to act as sponsor for your study you must apply for trust sponsorship as early as possible in this process (sponsorship is required before you can submit your application to the HRA). Email the relevant RMT (both if both sites required and a Lead Site will be allocated to process your application) to advise that you wish to apply for sponsorship and we will send you a Trust Sponsorship Application Form. Return the application form, protocol and peer review to the relevant site and your study will be reviewed within 7 working days.

Once Sponsorship is confirmed we will guide you through the national approval process and will release our final RDI Permission Letter in line with the HRA approval.

4. RDI Permission only

If you already have a sponsor for your study but want to add a site(s) at MWL please send the Local Information Pack to the relevant RMT (both if both sites required and a Lead Site will be allocated to process your application), this can be sent parallel to the submission of your IRAS application to the HRA.

Contacting the RDI Department in the first instance ensures you will have support through the key stages of planning your research. If you have not carried out key steps such as getting correct approvals to carry out your study, you will not be able to proceed. Completed research will not be approved retrospectively.