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Research Governance Frameworks

The Health Departments’ Research Governance Frameworks (RGF) set out guiding principles and standards for conducting research in a healthcare or social/community setting. Please also visit the Indemnity page.

The frameworks are of direct relevance to all those who host, conduct, participate in, fund and manage health and social/community care research, and should be adopted by all conducting research with human participants, their tissues or data (links to the frameworks are provided below).

 

Sponsorship

One of the areas of the RGF is the identification of a research Sponsor for studies that involve human participants, their tissues or data.

 

A ‘Sponsor’ is defined as – an individual or organisation that takes on responsibility for confirming there are proper arrangements in place to initiate, manage, monitor and finance a study. Sponsors must also ensure that appropriate indemnity is in place before research begins.

 

The MRC policy on The Health Departments’ Research Governance Frameworks details when it is appropriate for the MRC to take on a Sponsorship role.

 

Sponsor responsibilities are clearly defined in the following document:

Sponsor’s Responsibilities under the Research Governance Framework

 

Due to the collaborative nature of research, it may be appropriate for a unit to adopt a Co-sponsorship role, where the unit assumes some responsibilities of sponsor in partnership with another, or a small number of other, organisation(s). In these situations it is important to clearly document the roles and responsibilities of each party.