The University is committed to delivering high-quality market research projects that are tailored to business needs.

In order to ensure that those high standards are met, a new process – Administrative Research Ethics and Quality Assurance (AREQA) – has been designed to deliver ethics and quality assurance approval for non-academic primary research activities.

The new process builds on the previous approval route for Professional Services activities (through ERGO). It ensures that the same considerations are applied to achieve high ethical standards, but adds a business partnering solution designed to provide a strong element of quality assurance.

This process brings wide-ranging benefits for projects and the wider University, including:

• Overall oversight of activities provides reassurance against over-contacting and survey fatigue. ?It further minimises silo working and knowledge loss.
• By ensuring research questions are asked in a way and at a time that is appropriate and non-disruptive to respondents, it reduces the likelihood of negative reputational & perceptual impact on respondents and thus, creating an improved respondent experience
• The process ensures compliance with GDPR requirements

Find out more

Members of Institutional Research (IR) have worked with sub-teams within each Professional Services department, to identify team meetings that IR can attend, to brief everyone on the new process and what it means for staff and their project(s).

In the meantime, you can find more information on the dedicated SharePoint site.

For any further information, you can contact Needee Myers?or Rosie Sears.