Policy and Procedures
Policy and Procedures
NTU's policy on Research Involving Human Subjects is applicable to all NTU staff and students directly or indirectly engaged in the design, conduct, supervision and reporting of research involving humans. It aims to achieve the highest ethical standards in all research activity involving human subjects, and to ensure that they are adequately protected according to the core principles of rights, welfare, safety, privacy and confidentiality of human research subjects.
This policy covers research in both the Social, Behavioural and Educational Research (SBER) and Human Biomedical Research (HBR).
Researchers in NTU are also to ensure that your research activity is compliant with applicable legislation in Singapore, including but not limited to:
- the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) - Personal information and human biological material collected for research should be kept confidential and stored in a secure environment with restricted access. Individually-identifiable information should not be shared with any third party without getting appropriate consent from the human subject.
- the Human Biomedical Research Act (HBRA) - Studies within the scope of HBRA needs to ensure that your research activity are compliant with the additional safeguards required relating to the informed consent procedures, confidentiality of subjects, and the handling of human biological materials.
Overview of IRB Procedures
The table below shows an overview of the procedures under NTU's policy framework on research involving human subjects.
1. IRB Application & Review | 2. Study Conduct & Reporting | 3. Post-Approval Processes |
Minimum Training Requirements
| Informed Consent Procedure Getting appropriate consent from your participants Handling and Protecting your Research Data To secure confidential data in compliance with PDPA and HBRA Incident Reporting Reporting of protocol deviations, serious adverse events, and unanticipated problems. Reporting of Ethical Concerns Ethical concerns reported to RIEO will be handled in strict confidence. | Study Amendments Protocol amendments should be submitted for approval prior to changes in study conduct. This includes projects approved under the Exempt category. Continuing Reviews Annual status reporting of your approved protocol for Expedited and Full Board studies Study Completions To report completion of studies for closure on system Compliance Monitoring Proactive monitoring of selected high-risk studies by NTU-IRB |

Please refer to our Submission Procedure page for further details.
Overview on Review Categories
