Ethics and Compliance

Trent University is committed to the highest standards of ethical practice in research. Central to this is the principle that research must be conducted in accordance with the highest contemporary ethics standards.

The Office of Research & Innovation manages the approval and monitoring process for the use of humans, animals, and biohazardous materials in research at the University. Any research project involving human participants, animals, or biohazardous materials, whether it is funded or not, must receive certification from the appropriate University-sanctioned review board prior to the start of the project.

All ethics application and protocol event forms are available through the ROMEO Research Portal - an online database for the digital management and reporting of research funding and ethics certifications.

Please submit your human or animal ethics application for review at least 6 weeks before the proposed Start Date of the project. Most protocols reviewed by the REB or ACC require at least one round of revisions prior to approval. Since each revision extends the review process, please account for that when planning the timeline of your research project.

Projects approved by Trent ethics committees are subject to continuing ethics review throughout the life cycle of the project. Continuing review involves project renewals, review and approval of changes to the originally approved application (amendments and incident reports), adding new team members, and project completion or termination. The forms used to report the above events can be found under ROMEO Events tab associated with the active ethics certification.

NOTE: ALL protocols (including any that finished during a respective calendar year) need to submit an annual update. The “Annual Progress Report” listed under Events forms in ROMEO is due each year on December 31st. 

It is the responsibility of the principal investigator to ascertain whether a project requires an ethics approval or biosafety certification. Failure to seek ethical review and to comply with recommendations of the relevant ethics review board may be deemed as misconduct, as outlined in the Trent University Policy on Research and Scholarly Misconduct.

Contact Coordinator, research conduct and reporting 

Protocols are submitted using the ROMEO Researcher Portal system.  New users must self register prior to logging in.

ROMEO can be accessed through MyTrent by selecting “Services”, "Learning and Research" and “ROMEO Researcher Portal".

ROMEO can also be accessed here.

Instructions for Completing a Human Ethics, Animal Care or Biosafety & Radiation Protocol

For more assistance, please consult the ROMEO user GUIDE.

Should you require any assistance with the ROMEO system, please contact Anna Kisiala, Coordinator, Research Conduct and Reporting. If you wish to have a short demonstration of the system, please let Anna know and she can meet with you or a small group.