How a BREAD Ethics Consultation Can Help

The UCSF BREAD research ethics consultation service can help you better understand the ethical issues in your research and justify to funders and the Institutional Review Board (IRB) how you are addressing those issues in your study. We can help you identify the ethical issues, the concerns that reviewers are likely to raise, and approaches that other researchers have taken regarding those issues. Furthermore, we can help you explain in submissions to funders and IRB your plan for addressing the ethical issues in your project. (Request a BREAD consultation.)

How is BREAD Different From the CHR?

Our role is to provide advice to investigators, whereas the Committe on Human Research (CHR) is charged with reviewing and approving protocols. BREAD can help you anticipate and respond to the concerns that CHR is likely to raise. BREAD consultation does not guarantee that CHR will approve your proposal or that the CHR review process will be shorter. However, it is likely to strengthen your submission. Some investigators are reluctant to consult with CHR about ethical issues regarding their work. For example, some investigators are concerned that such questions will raise red flags and lead to closer CHR scrutiny. Although this is not the case, some investigators may be more comfortable asking questions of BREAD consultants.

Benefits of an Ethics Consultation

Funders such as NIH are giving increasing scrutiny to the "Human Subjects" part of the application. In some cases, investigators with strong scientific reviews had their percentiles raised because of ethical concerns. Furthermore, submissions to CHR that are unclear or poorly thought out may lead to delays in obtaining CHR approval. Hence it is useful for the principal investigator to ensure that ethical issues are adequately addressed.

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