About research governance authorisation

Research governance is about making sure that your research meets legal, financial, reporting and risk management requirements. It's also about making sure that the hospital or health service where you're doing your research has the right resources and staff to support your project.

To get research governance authorisation you'll need to submit a site specific assessment (SSA) application in Ethical Review Manager (ERM).

Contact our research governance team if you need help with any of the steps below.

How to apply for an SSA

Get ethics approval for your project

You can apply for ethics approval and research governance authorisation at the same time but, you won't get final research governance authorisation until you have ethics approval.

Step 1: Do a risk assessment

Use the following documents to help you prepare a risk assessment and management plan, including any risks and how you'll manage them.

Include your project's overall risk rating with your submission.

Step 2: Prepare a budget

The following documents will help you understand how to manage your project's funding and will also help you prepare a budget.

For an overview of financial management watch our video about Managing site finance and finance in research: what you need to know.

Step 3: Prepare your research contract and agreements

You may need to prepare research contracts and agreements if a third party is involved in your research, for example a sponsor organisation or a university.

You don't need a research agreement if your research only involves the Metro South Hospital and Health Service.

Read the following documents to learn more about preparing your research contracts.

Step 4: Get signatures and endorsement

Use one of these forms to get signatures and endorsement from the principal investigator, head of department, business finance manager (if funds are over $10,000).

Other additional signatures may be required and are determined by the overall risk rating for your project.

Read Research contracts and study execution [PDF 283.56 KB] for more information about getting signatures and endorsement for your research project.

Step 5: Prepare other supporting documents

Our SSA guidance document and checklist [DOCX 600.07 KB] explains what supporting documents to submit with your application.

Our Site specific assessment of research [PDF 256.04 KB] also has information about supporting documents, including what format to use for different documents.

It is a mandatory requirement that all researchers undertake research integrity and Good Clinical Practice (GCP) training.

Step 6: Submit your SSA

You must use the online Ethical Review Manager (ERM) to submit your SSA and supporting documents. If you're doing research in more than one place within Metro South Health, you only need to submit one form.

If you're doing research in more than one place, including a site outside of Metro South Health, you will need to submit a SSA to us and to the other external sites.

Read the ERM how-to guides.

After you have clicked 'submit' and we've reviewed your application, we'll send you an email to let you know the outcome.

Fees

You may need to pay an administration fee [PDF 166.05 KB] when you submit your application. Make sure you include any fees as part of your research budget. Invoice details must be provided on the administration fees form [DOCX 684.16 KB].

Contact us

If you have any questions about research governance, you can contact us by:

Last updated: June 2024