School ethics committees

• Contacts and members

  Each SEC must have a minimum of four members (at least two of whom should be permanent staff members). This is to ensure that there are always three SEC members involved in the review of an application, even if one member is excluded by having a conflict of interest.

  The minimum number of members required to be present at a SEC meeting or to review a 'standard' application is three. Applications meeting the criteria for proportionate review can be reviewed by one member. 

  School ethics committee	Members
  Art History Contact:  arthist@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Gönül Bozoglu (convenor) Andrew Demetrius (administrator) Dr Bronwen Gulkis Dr Elsje Van Kessel Dr Lisa McDonald
  Biology Contact Lynn Christie: bioethics@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Luke Rendell (convenor - human ethics) Professor Sonja Vernes (convenor - animal ethics) Dr Lynn Christie (administrator) Dr Cornelia Oedekoven (CREEM) Dr Enrico Pirotta (CREEM) Charles Paxton (CREEM) Prof Graeme Ruxton
  Business School Contact: bschoolethics@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Boyka Bratanova (convenor) Sumit Bains (administrator) Kirsty Forbes (administrator) Dr Celal Cahit Agar Dr Cinla Akinci Dr Hannah Dean Dr Peter Macmillan Dr Frank Siedlok Dr Brendan Whitty  Dr Song Zhang
  Chemistry Contact:  chem-ethics@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Danica G Pinto (convenor) Dr Jason McNulty (administrator) Dr Neil Keddie Dr John B O Mitchell
  Classics Contact:  classicshos@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Talitha Kearey Laura Cameron-Mackintosh (administrator) Prof Alex Long
  Computer Science Contact: ethics-cs@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Olexandr Konovalov (convenor) Mrs Hazel Wallace (administrator) Dr Duncan Adamson Dr Loraine Clarke Dr Lei Fang Dr Jason Jacques Prof Graham Kirby Mr David Morrison Dr Kasim Terzić
  Divinity Contact: divinitypg@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Judith Wolfe (convenor) Kate Dove (administrator) Professor Mario Aguilar Dr John Perry
  English Contact:  english@st-andrews.ac.uk English SEC website	Dr Christina Alt (convenor) Megan Kellingray (administrator) Prof David Herd Prof Gill Plain Dr Raphaela Rohrhofer Dr Kiron Ward
  Geography and Sustainable Development Contact:  gsdethics@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr David McCollum (convenor) Natalie Connell (administrator) Dr Mary Abed Al Ahad Dr Antje Brown Dr Charlotte Lee Dr Richard Streeter
  Graduate School Contact: Lisa Neilson gradschool@st-andrews.ac.uk
  History Contact:  lh@st-andrews.ac.uk  (Lorna Harris)	Prof Kate Ferris Dorothy Christie (administrator from January 2026) Prof Justine Firnhaber-Baker Dr Matt McLean Prof James Palmer Dr Angus Stewart
  International Education Institute Contact:  ie-sec@st-andrews.ac.uk  SEC website: Moodle Page	Blair Matthews (convenor) Julie Smith (administrator) Stephanie Bowen (lay member) Mark Carver Kirsty Duff Alan Duncan John Hughes Eoin Jordan Alison Malcolm-Smith Kirsty McCall Nicola Miller (lay member) Stefan O'Grady Aaron Rotsinger Amritesh Singh Lesley Thirkell Lynn Wilson Sin Wang Chong
  International Relations Contact: irethics@st-andrews.ac.uk Ethics - School of International Relations - University of St Andrews (st-andrews.ac.uk)	Dr Kieran McConaghy (convenor) Joyce Walsh (administrator) Dr Camilo Ardila Dr Holly Marshall Dr David Miles Dr Daniel Mobley Dr William Vlcek Prof Ali Watson
  Mathematics and Statistics	Professor Clare Parnell (convenor) Mr Stuart Mackintosh (lead administrator) Ms Danielle Watson (administrator) Mrs Evlyn Brown Dr Fergus Chadwick Dr Alison Johnston Professor Andy Lynch Dr Charles Paxton Professor Antonia Wilmot-Smith
  Medicine Contact: medethic@st-andrews.ac.uk	Professor David Harrison (convenor) Lesley Ferrier (administrator) Dr Richard Bellis Dr Sarah Bowers Dr Jo Cecil Katrin Metsis Dr Paul Reynolds Dr Derek Sloan
  Modern Languages Contact:  langsethics@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr Emily Finer (convenor) David Allan (administrator) Dr Kirill Dmitriev Prof Ziad Elmarsafy Dr Ricardo Fernandez Romero Dr Javier Letran
  Philosophy, Social Anthropology and Film Studies Contact:  researchpafs@st-andrews.ac.uk (staff) pafs-teach-coord@st-andrews.ac.uk (students)	Dr Ana Gutierrez Garza (convenor) Nikki Steel (administrator - students) Lynn Hynd (administrator - staff) Dr Mattia Fumanti Prof Christos Lynteris Dr Joseph Millum
  Physics and Astronomy Contact:  da16@st-andrews.ac.uk  (Dimali Vinthage)	Professor J Carlos Penedo-Esteiro (convenor) Dr Dimali Vithanage (administrator) Dr Andrew Bunting Dr Cameron Rae Dr Juan Varela
  Psychology and Neuroscience (human and animal) Contact: psyethics@st-andrews.ac.uk	Dr David Tait (convenor, Human & Animal ethics) Dr Helen Sunderland (administrator) Dr Ilary Allodi Dr Justin Ales Dr Amalia Bastos Dr Juan-Carlos Gomez (semester 1) Prof Julie Harris (semester 2) Dr Samuel Pehrson Dr Anna Stefaniak Mr Gary Steven Dr Nicole Tausch (semester 1) Dr Maarten Zwart

   

• Meetings

  SEC meetings occur regularly. For information on dates and deadlines of SEC meetings, email your SEC contact or refer to your SEC's webpage (see contacts section above).

  Ethical application forms must be submitted using the online ethics system. The review process is described on the ethics application page.

  If your School does not have a SEC or you are part of a professional services Unit, email the UTREC office at utrecmail@st-andrews.ac.uk for guidance.

• SEC convenor remit and role

  UTREC expects the following tasks to be undertaken by a SEC convenor, who has to be a trained member of the SEC:

  • For SEC meetings: drafting the agenda, chairing the meeting (ensuring that those with conflicts of interest are excluded from reviewing relevant applications) and finalising the minutes
  • Acting on the SEC’s behalf between meetings when urgent matters arise and when decisions are required
  • Ensuring that the SEC is quorate (i.e. contains a minimum of four trained members), identifying and recruiting new SEC members when required
  • Ensuring that SEC members and administrators obtain appropriate training
  • Raising awareness of importance of ethical issues within their School and the relation of ethics review to research integrity, liaising with the Director of Research as appropriate
  • Referring applicants who have repeatedly incurred avoidable burden on SEC members' time to applicant training, liaising with the Director of Research and Head of School as appropriate
  • Organising a handover with the new SEC Convenor and UTREC office when demitting
  • Ensuring the UTREC office are kept up to date with changes in the SEC membership
  • Responding to, or circulating onward, communications from the UTREC office.

• Monitoring by UTREC

  SECs have their own procedures in place to ensure continuity in performing ethical review, but are accountable to, and monitored by, UTREC, in the following ways:

  • All SEC members must be trained every three years by the UTREC office.
  • For historical applications stored on the old ethics database, SECs must upload all amendment applications and associated documents (unless the application has been renewed in the online ethics system).
  • Summaries of all applications given a review outcome by SECs, taken from the online ethics system, are scrutinised by UTREC at its meetings.
  • UTREC may request to review the full documentation for any approved application, in the interest of either sharing best practice or investigating a concern, and may invite the researcher(s) or relevant SEC Convenor to speak to the application.
  • Members of UTREC or the UTREC office may attend SEC meetings.

• Conflicts of interest

  Ethical review must be free from bias and undue influence.
  
  This requires that researchers or supervisors are not involved in the review of proposals for which they have a conflict of interest; including the researchers, participants, or organisations related to the proposal. SEC members are responsible for actively identifying and declaring any such conflicts, and ensuring they are not involved in the review of any such proposals.