Application & Review

Policies, guidance, and processes relating to ethical review and oversight of both Clinical and Behavioural research studies undertaken by BC Cancer researchers can be found on this website, as well as the UBC Office for Research Ethics website at: https://ethics.research.ubc.ca/.

For new applications and post-approval activities (amendments or annual renewals) requiring full board review, see Meetings & Fees tab below for full board submission deadlines and REB meeting dates.

Questions? email reb@bccancer.bc.ca

Meetings & fees

Submission deadlines & meeting dates

The submission deadlines and meeting dates below are only applicable to new and ongoing projects that are above minimal risk or projects that are subject to full board review.

All applications requiring full board review (e.g. new applications, amendments, annual renewals, deferral responses) must be received in the RISe inbox prior to midnight on the deadline date to be considered for that month’s meeting.

New applications require the Department Head approval to be considered for REB review - please submit at least 3 days prior to the deadline to allow for department head approval.

The initial review fee must also be submitted prior to the submission deadline (see below for information on fees). Applications received after the midnight deadline or without fees will be deferred until the next month's meeting or until payment is received in full.

2025 Submission Deadlines and Meeting Dates for Full Board Review - We strictly adhere to deadlines:

Month	Submission Deadline	Meeting Dates
January	Jan 7	Jan 28
February	Feb 4	Feb 25
March	Mar 4	Mar 25
April	Apr 1	Apr 22
May	May 6	May 27
June	Jun 3	Jun 24
July	Jul 2	Jul 22
August	Aug 5	Aug 26
September	Sept 2	Sept 23
October	Oct 7	Oct 28
November	Nov 4	Nov 25
December*	Nov 21	Dec 9
January 2026	Jan 6	Jan 27

*Note: No new studies reviewed at December meeting (only renewals and amendments).

(Click here for a calendar pdf version)

Minimal risk projects can be submitted for delegated review at any time (no deadline or meeting dates). Annual Renewals requiring expedited review should be submitted 2 weeks prior to expiry.

Fees

There are two types of fees: 1) initial review and 2) annual renewal. The fees only apply to sponsored studies that are in whole or in part from a for-profit entity. Please refer to the BC Cancer Research Ethics Fees schedule (2025) which contains information on:

Definition of a for-profit sponsored study
Fee waiver criteria
Initial review fees
Annual review fees

Refunds: Once the REB has commenced review processes, a refund is not available. If an application is withdrawn prior to review, a refund is only available upon request. A refund under these circumstances is not automatically issued - the Principal Investigator must notify the REB by email to request a refund and include an explanation for the withdrawal. The email must include the REB H#, project title, and the details for the refund such as the BC Cancer account into which the refund should be transferred or identification of the designate to whom the cheque is to be made payable.

New applications

All applications are submitted and processed in RISe. If you experience issues with your RISe account, please contact RISe support.

Only the Principal Investigator (PI) can submit a new application in RISe. If you do not have PI status, please refer to our policy on Who Can be a Principal Investigator for a list of assessment criteria. To request PI status, email us including:

a brief description of your education and previous research experience.
your most recent CV.

See "Policies, Procedures, and Guidance" section for study-specific guidance documents.

Once initial approval is issued, post-approval activities (PAAs) can be submitted to make changes to the application form, to renew the application form on a yearly bases, to request for acknowledgement, or to close the application. Please refer to the next tab Post-Approval Activities for more information.

Refer to this Common Proviso Table for a list of common provisos and how to to best address them.

Post-approval activities

Amendments

Researchers must submit an Amendment when a previously approved research protocol and/or related study documents undergo revisions or modifications. The changes must be submitted and approved prior to implementation unless the changes are:

crucial and therefore urgent actions need to be taken for research participant safety
logistical/administrative and do not impact the study design

For information on the types of amendments and instructions on the submission processes, please see UBC CREB PAA Guidance Notes - Section IV– Study Amendments.

Note: only one amendment can be submitted at a time per study.Researchers must submit an Amendment when a previously approved research protocol and/or related study documents undergo revisions or modifications. The changes must be submitted and approved

Annual renewals

Researchers must submit annual renewals with sufficient details to enable the REB to make an informed judgement about the continued ethical acceptability of the research (TCPS 2 Article 6.14).

Level of review may change depending on the study status, and the extent of any remaining risk to participants are re-considered at the time of annual renewal (e.g. A clinical trial that was initially reviewed by the full board may be eligible for delegated review depending on the extent of the remaining risk to participants if treatments are complete).

For determining what type of review is required, refer to this Quick Reference Table for Annual Renewal & SAE Reporting & Completion of Study. This table also indicates when a study no longer requires annual renewal and reporting of serious adverse events (SAEs), and when a study can be considered complete (see Study Completion panel below).

For more information and instructions on the submission process, please see UBC CREB PAA Guidance Notes - Section III - Annual Renewals.

Note: amendments and annual renewals cannot be combined. To make changes to the application form, please submit a separate PAA amendment.

Request for acknowledgement

Researchers have a responsibility to ensure that any new information that may affect participant welfare or consent is shared with the REB (TCPS 2 Article 11.8).

New information includes (but not limited to):

Safety data
Protocol deviations (see below)
Unanticipated issues/problems (see below)
Evidence of any new risks
Newly discovered risks
Newly discovered information
New research findings, including non-trial findings
Study holds/closures/completion
Enrolment holds/closures
Privacy breaches (see WHAT SHOULD I DO IN CASE OF A PRIVACY BREACH? section under "Our Policies, Procedure & Guidance")

For more information on submitting Request for Acknowledgements, please see UBC CREB PAA Guidance Notes - Section VI - Request for Acknowledgement.

Unanticipated problems & protocol deviations

Should unanticipated issues (including protocol deviations) arise that may increase the level of risk or have other ethical implications that may affect participants' welfare, researchers shall report them to REB in a timely manner (TCPS2 Article 6.15).

Examples of unanticipated issues include:

unexpected participant reaction to the study intervention
unavoidable single incidents

Minor deviations may be summarized in annual status reports.

For information on submitting Unanticipated Problems, please see UBC CREB PAA Guidance Notes - Section VII– Submitting Unanticipated Problems.

For information on submitting Protocol Deviations, please see UBC CREB PAA Guidance Notes - Section VIII– Protocol Deviations.

Study completion

The obligation to report new information ends with the completion of the study (TCPS 2 Article 11.8).

A study may be closed when:

all data collection procedures as per the approved protocol is complete for studies involving DIRECT human participation*.
all data/biospecimen acquisition is complete (from charts, other research groups, biobanks, etc.) for studies that do not involve DIRECT human participation**.

*Studies with US Federal Government support/funding cannot be considered closed until all participant-related activities and data analysis involving personally identifiable information are complete.

**US-affiliated studies are subject to specific requirements.

‎For more information on submitting Study Completions, please see UBC CREB PAA Guidance Notes - Section V - Study Completion.

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