With COVID-19, if your research took place in-person with human participants, your research was halted unless you were provided approval by the REB to change your method of data collection to a remote means, i.e., move from in-person interviews to telephone/zoom interviews.

Lakehead University is now allowing in-person research to resume with approval of the REB.  Justification or demonstration of low risk, and a Human Participant Safety Plan must be provided to the REB for consideration of approval.  Applications are submitted through the Romeo Researcher Portal.  Once approval is in place, researchers can start/re-start in-person research. 

Please contact Sue Wright swright@lakeheadu.ca if you have questions regarding the in-person research re-start process. 

If your research is taking place in a clinical setting, please consult with the hospital/clinic for specific instructions imposed in those settings.  You are required to follow all hospital-mandated procedures with regard to COVID-19. 

Since Lakehead University has a reciprocity agreement with TBRHSC for REB approvals, you do not need to notify the Lakehead University REB for amendment requests if your protocol has been reviewed and approved by the TBRHSC REB. 

If your research is approved by the Lakehead University REB, please complete the REB Amendment Form through the Romeo Researcher Portal and provide a letter of support for research to proceed from your partner.

Researchers must submit an Amendment Request Form through the Romeo Researcher Portal.  The Form requires researchers to provide a justification for the need to collect data in-person, or demonstration of low risk for COVID-19 transmission, and provide a Human Participant Safety Plan.  If partners are involved with the research, i.e., school board, local community organization etc., a letter of support for research to proceed must be provided.  For those researchers working with Indigenous communities, specific information regarding community rules and regulations around research must be considered along with a letter of support for research to proceed from the community Chief & Council.

If you have specified in your Research Ethics Board application that you will only handle data on campus, please submit an amendment to the REB to include specific details on your research data management and storage plan.  You must specify to the REB how the data will remain secure at all times, i.e., password protected laptop computer, password encrypted USB stick, locked filing cabinet/drawer etc.   All research data is subject to the TCPS2 which states “identifiable data obtained through research that is kept on a computer and connected to the Internet should be encrypted.”  TSC recommends users working from home utilize full data encryption on the hard drive (bitlocker as an example). Researchers should also have up to date Antivirus software. Also, a best practice is to separate Personally identifiable Information, (PII) and only work with the non-private data whenever possible.

Public cloud services (Google Drive, DropBox, iCloud, Onedrive etc.) for data storage or transfer are strictly prohibited. Institutional cloud services might be suitable if specified in the REB protocol. Privacy and security are the reasons for preferring internal services over external.   Please ensure central, departmental and lab file shares that meet data protection requirements and have been identified in the REB protocol and any amendments.

We strongly recommend you seek the advice of Mason Holroyd, Manager, Helpdesk, Technology Services Centre for assistance in establishing a secure data storage plan that can be secured off-site.  Mason can be reached by email at managersdc.tsc@lakeheadu.ca or by phone at Ext. 8102.

New research related to or arising from the COVID-19 pandemic that is submitted for ethical review will be given priority for review depending on the impact of the pandemic on the REB review process.

The Animal Care Committee (ACC) will continue as usual and will review new protocols as well as renewals, modifications, and final reports via the Romeo Researcher Portal. 

All ACC meetings will be held via Zoom technology.

Please continue to monitor the CCAC website for updates:  https://www.ccac.ca/en/news-and-events/news/2020headlines/crisis-management-and-covid-19.html

For any further questions regarding research involving animal care facilities, please contact the Trista King, RVT (tking5@lakeheadu.ca).  For all other animal care inquiries, please contact Sue Wright, Manager, Research Ethics and Contracts (swright@lakeheadu.ca). 

Both the Lakehead University Animal Care Facility (LUACF) and Biology Aquatics Facility (BAF) have emergency contingency plans in place to ensure animal welfare is a priority.

All internal research grants and start-up funding (with the exception of Conference Travel) are granted an automatic one-year extension.  If additional time is needed beyond the one-year automatic extension, please contact the Office of Research Services for further direction.

Researchers who have had to cancel conference travel as a result of COVID-19 will be allowed to charge any unfunded fees to their grants.

If the conference is postponed you will be allowed to retain your grant for a period of up to one year from the initial date of the conference to attend the postponed conference. Please make all requests for amendments through the Romeo Research Portal as soon as you know about the status of your conference.

In the event a conference is cancelled, researchers must return the funds to the SRC.

Conference travel grants cannot be used for any other conference other than the conference the funds were originally approved for.

If you have received any other internal funds from the Office of Vice-President (Research and Innovation) for travel, please contact the Vice-President, Research and Innovation for clarity on the use of these funds through ea.vpri@lakeheadu.ca.

Lakehead University is allowing non-refundable expenses including non-refundable change fees to be charged to external research grants and contracts following the guidelines established by the Tri-Agencies:  https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/news_room-salle_de_presse/latest_news-nouvelles_recentes/2020/covid-19_tri-agency-trois-organismes-eng.aspx. 

If researchers or research personnel have cancelled travel and received a travel credit from an airline, please inform Margot Ross at mross@lakeheadu.ca so that our records can indicate a cash advance.

Please contact Margot Ross at mross@lakeheadu.ca if you have specific questions regarding the eligibility of such expenses against your research grant or contract.