COVID-related FAQs for research activities and processes
Our top priority remains the health and safety of our entire community. We continue to closely follow the directives of public health agencies and the government.
Below are answers to frequently asked questions for researchers. We will continue to update this page as new information becomes available. Information for graduate students can be found on the School of Graduate Studies website.
For other general questions on Concordia’s COVID-19 response, please visit Concordia's COVID-19 website.
Last updated: September 13, 2021, 8:21 a.m.
Funding opportunities
Research labs and activities (effective as of September 7, 2021)
We are working with the Government of Quebec, public health authorities and the City of Montreal as well as public transit commissions to use an approach centered on the respect of social distancing norms and on the protection of all.
As we have done throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we will adhere scrupulously to all public health directives and carefully consider the sanitization and subsequent use of shared spaces such as stairs, elevators and eating areas.
Research labs continue to be opened. Professors should contact the Associate Dean, Research of their Faculty to learn more.
There is no longer a need to contact Faculties to add personnel to labs unless a Faculty specifically chooses to maintain this requirement.
Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) will assess new research spaces for capacity limits upon request.
For dry labs and meeting rooms, normal capacity of the space is permitted with mask rules.
For wet labs, existing capacity as set by EHS can be maintained with all personnel/students being scheduled accordingly and mask rules followed. If a PI wants the capacity increased, they must ask EHS for a new assessment.
EHS has prepared guidelines for shared computer labs.
The university is following recommendations and guidelines of the CNESST and has enhanced cleaning and sanitization for areas that are frequented by faculty, staff and students. Additional hand sanitizing stations have been added. In addition, those accessing campus are required to use hand sanitizer upon arrival. Training has been implemented for all individuals accessing campus to ensure a common understanding of expected behaviours for the health and safety of our community. Learn more about the University’s workplace safety guidelines.
Ethics & compliance
In-person research with humans will no longer need approval of the Central Committee unless it involves chapter 9 of the TCPS (research with Indigenous communities). The existing form and process are retained in those cases.
However, the requirement to submit approval letters from all collaborating institutions/organizations, which include details on specific COVID-related requirements, is still in effect. Please forward all approval letters directly to the Research Ethics Unit, at oor.ethics@concordia.ca, and clearly identify the relevant ethics protocol number linked to the request, before initiating any in-person research activities.
Researchers and their participants must follow the processes for Visitors Accessing Campus during the Pandemic.
Field research activities will no longer require approval, with the exception of international field research for which the Field Research process will be retained with the Faculty associate dean, research reviewing requests with a copy sent to the Office of the Vice-President, Research and Graduate Studies.
International travel for conferences and workshops does not require approval.
You are required to submit an amendment request to your existing protocol. Since you may eventually wish to return to in-person research or maintain a hybrid of remote and in-person data collection in the future, please do not remove any methodologies already approved under the protocol; rather simply request the addition of remote/online recruitment and data collection.
The amendment request must contain:
- A cover email requesting an amendment to an approved protocol
- A separate document in PDF outlining any modifications with a clear, detailed explanation as to why the change is being made; list where each document has been modified (SPF and/or supporting documents)
- Copies of the revised SPF and supporting documents with all changes clearly highlighted; do not resend all your appendices – send only those that pertain to the amendment request
- Any new appendices; these must be provided as separate documents saved in PDF
All amendment requests should be submitted by email to oor.ethics@concordia.ca.
The Secretariat on Responsible Conduct of Research has shared new interpretations from the Panel on Research Ethics to support the community in applying the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans, TCPS 2 (2018) during the current COVID-19 publicly declared emergency.
There are three different categories of additional research-attributable risk that can arise in the COVID-19 environment:
New risks arising from changes to researcher’s plan for interacting with participants:
For example, a researcher may decide to communicate with participants remotely instead of in-person to respect physical distancing and mitigate the transmission/spread of the virus through human contact. While this may address risks related to physical contact, researchers and research ethics boards (REBs) should be mindful that this change introduces new risks and ethics issues related to privacy and confidentiality of information when using digital platforms and home offices, and the need for new security and safety measures to protect participants’ information. Where, for example, researchers attempt to reduce the risk of infection by mailing experimental drugs to participants rather than continuing in-person participation, this will likely require a change to the researcher’s plan for monitoring any side effects.
Depending on the participant pool, the change from in-person to remote participation may also introduce new ethics issues related to fairness and equity, where only those with access and ability to participate remotely (e.g. due to internet connectivity, computer/ smart phone availability and capacity) can continue to participate in the research. “…[P]ractices of researchers or REBs, whether intentional or inadvertent, can exclude some members of society from participating in research” (Chapter 4, Introduction).
New risks that emerge, even if the research plan remains unchanged:
For example, the continued participation of participants who provide weekly blood samples at a hospital may subject them to new risks of exposure to the coronavirus during their commute, or as a result of their proximity to other participants or to members of the research team. Also, new public health requirements for reporting can introduce new risks related to privacy and confidentiality in ongoing research. For example, if new security standards require researchers to retain the participants’ personal information for contact tracing purposes, researchers can no longer guarantee participants’ anonymity (see Application of Article 5.2).
In addition to risks of increased participant exposure to the virus, there are possible societal risks of further transmitting the virus beyond the individual participants to other third parties, including family members.
Changes in risk levels arising from changes to the participants’ personal circumstances:
During the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic, “participants … may be rendered more vulnerable by the nature of the emergency” (Application of Article 6.21). Vulnerabilities can be psychological due to isolation, stress, anxiety, or for economic reasons due to financial burdens of the pandemic or unemployment. Vulnerabilities can also be social in nature due to limited access to critical services, or physical vulnerability due to pre-existing medical conditions or age. For example, when research on self-harm or suicide involving participants began in non-pandemic times and continues in a COVID-19 environment, researchers need to re-assess the vulnerability of their participants in the context of research. Researchers should consider the additional stress that participants may be experiencing in their personal life. Participants who take part in ongoing research at a research site may be anxious or fearful about exposure in a potential COVID-19 environment, and may no longer wish to continue participating in research. Similarly, a high-risk research study conducted in-person to test a new drug on immunocompromised patients may be deemed acceptable for those participants in non-pandemic times. However, the risk to participants may rise to unacceptable levels in a pandemic context. Participants may no longer accept risks they would have otherwise accepted in non-pandemic contexts. Others may be willing to accept risks they would not have otherwise accepted, in the absence of a known cure for COVID-19 or COVID related complications; for example, participation in treatment trials for those infected with the virus or participation in prevention trials, including participation in vaccine studies.
Changes or unanticipated issues that may increase the level of risk for participants or that have other ethical implications affecting participants’ welfare must be submitted for research ethics board (REB) review (see Articles 6.15 and 6.16). As with other changes to the research, the level of additional risks and their impact on the welfare of participants determine when researchers should report the changes to the REB - whether immediately, or if the researcher can document and summarize the changes in annual status reports. Where applicable, researchers must also provide to the REB their plan to manage additional risks through safety plans or technical safeguards, and their efforts to reach a favorable balance of risks and benefits for participants.
As with the assessment of the ethical acceptability of research, the REB review of the changes “involves consideration of the foreseeable risks, the potential benefits and the ethical implications of the research” (Article 2.9). REBs assess those risks that are attributable to the research. The TCPS states that “[w]hen describing the foreseeable risks and potential benefits of research involving participants who are also exposed to other risks, researchers should clearly distinguish between the risks that are attributable to the research, and the risks to which participants would normally be exposed” (Article 2.10).
Researchers must inform participants of the changes or unanticipated additional research-attributable risks as part of their “ongoing duty to provide participants with all information relevant to their ongoing consent to participate in research” (Article 3.3). In deciding when, how, and how frequently to advise participants of additional risks, researchers and REBs should be guided by the level of those risks and their impact on the potential welfare of participants. They must also consider whether any other policies or requirements apply to the changed circumstances that create the additional risks. These policies and requirements might be sufficient measures to address the identified risk, and therefore changes to the research are not required.
The onus is on the researcher to satisfy the research ethics board (REB) that the research can proceed during the pandemic. The following are some questions that REBs should consider in reviewing the ethical acceptability of initial submissions of research or ongoing research in a pandemic environment. Each research is different, and the nature of participant pools varies, so the issues to consider should be tailored on a case-by-case basis.
Impact on Study Conduct and its Scientific Validity
- Can the research involve participants remotely rather than in person?
- Is the research question still relevant within the context of the pandemic environment?
- Will the pandemic environment impact or alter the representativeness of the participant sample, or the sample plan, and thus its scientific validity?
- Has interruption of the research (i.e., the stopping and resumption due to the pandemic), or the availability of research funds, impacted its scientific validity or feasibility?
Impact on Risks and Benefits of Research
- Has the researcher considered new risks attributed to the research as a result of COVID-19 environment?
- Has the level of risk of previously approved research changed?
- Can the researcher maintain a favorable balance of risks and benefits?
- What measures has the researcher taken to mitigate any increased levels of risk?
- Does resuming the research impose additional burdens on participants (e.g. telecommunications cost) to continue to participate in the research?
- Does the researcher expect the vulnerability of the participants to change within the context of the research?
- Are the initial anticipated benefits of research still possible?
Impact on the Consent Process
- Do alternate consent strategies need to be considered, for example seeking consent over the internet rather than in person?
- Is the information provided to participants as part of the consent process still accurate, or does it need to be updated?
- Does resumption or continuation of approved research introduce unanticipated changes that may increase the level of risk to require informing the participants as part of the ongoing consent process, for example, informing participants about new information, changed procedures, or changed protections that might affect the participants’ choice to continue to participate in the research?
Other Ethics Issues
- If there is a change to previously approved research, does it raise other ethics issues e.g. inclusion and exclusion issues or new risks related to privacy and confidentiality?
- In the case of multi-jurisdictional and international research, is the researcher sufficiently aware of the local COVID-19 circumstances in the other sites to be able to assess any changed level of risk to participants, and how this may affect any proposed changes to the study and its procedures?
- Where research is based on community engagement or research agreements, has the researcher considered how to negotiate or implement any proposed changes (e.g. additional consultation, engagement or permission needed to begin recruitment or resume the research)?
- Are there other community constraints or institutional permissions required to begin recruitment or resume the research?
- While not a formal part of REBs’ responsibilities, do REBs have concerns about the safety of researchers and the research team members (e.g. the availability of personal protective equipment) that REBs should share with researchers or refer to other appropriate bodies within the institution?
Funding updates
Please submit the grant extension request form to the Office of Research to request an extension.
Program Overview
The Canada Research Continuity Emergency Fund (CRCEF) is a temporary tri-council program established to help the research enterprise at Canadian universities and health research institutions that have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Funding under this program is specifically provided to support non-governmental sources of research funding.
Partnerships & innovation
Yes, with the understanding that any planned research activities and associated timelines must take into consideration the limitations on access to lab spaces and in-person work. Please contact a member of the Research Partnerships and Innovation team to discuss the opportunity and establish next steps.
Requests of this nature must be handled on a case-by-case basis, as every sponsor will differ in its approach. Please contact a member of our team to discuss the specifics and we will be happy to work with you, in conjunction with the sponsor, to determine what accommodations can be made through an amendment to the existing agreement.
Yes, you can still declare a new technology to the Office of Research. Please contact us for guidance on the process.
Travel
Necessary research/academic travel is allowed.
Staff intending to travel outside of Canada for official university business must receive prior authorization from their supervisor. Faculty members continue to be required to inform their department chair if the intended travel conflicts with teaching or service responsibilities.
Exceptionally and until further notice: faculty, postdoctoral students, graduate students and research personnel who wish to conduct research fieldwork outside of Canada must complete a request for Continuing Essential Field Research Activities. For more information, faculty and staff are encouraged to consult Concordia’s message on work- or research-related travel outside of Canada. The travel registry is to be used for international travel related to Concordia business, in order to provide support in case of an emergency. Travellers are strongly encouraged to complete the registry before any international travel. Read the OVPRGS Notice on travel outside Canada.
