Local Research Ethics Committee (LREC) approval
(absolute minimum 2 months before scanning)
In order to be allocated slots on the CBU scanner, you need official ethics approval either from the Cambridge Local Research Ethics Committee (LREC) or another LREC within the region. Applications to Cambridge are likely to be processed more smoothly than applications elsewhere as the Cambridge Committee are aware of, and have formerly approved, our Standard Operating Procedures. However, the Cambridge LREC can only review a relatively small number of applications per month and they are usually over subscribed several months in advance. Therefore, we recommend that you contact the Cambridge LREC in order to book a slot on their agenda as early as you possibly can. If they do not have a slot within a reasonable time frame they can advise you which Committee does have slots available and provide you with contact details.
It is possible that someone in your research group has already acquired LREC permission for your study and to run your experiment you only need to become an additional named investigator on that application. This is now usually done via the Principal Investigator contacting LucilleMurby with an instruction to add you to their protocol (no contact with LREC is normally required). If your study is not included on an existing protocol then you need to submit a full application, which is a substantial document available online at the Central Office for Research Ethics Committees (COREC). For more details about what is involved, contact someone who has recently submitted a protocol in your group, or contact LucilleMurby. There are standard forms available (already approved by LREC) that will need to be included in your application and you can find these at http://imaging.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/mri/InternalAdmin and please follow the instructions there carefully. Only these standard forms will be acceptable for use within the MRI Facility. Please contact LucilleMurby for more information.