Research Ethics Board

The University of Prince Edward Island follows the national standards outlined by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TSPS 2).

NEW! In January 2023, the Secretariat on Responsible Conduct of Research, on behalf of the Presidents of Canada’s three research funding agencies (CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC), announced the latest update to the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans – TCPS 2 (TCPS 2, 2022), which includes new guidance on streamlining multi-jurisdictional ethics review for minimal risk research. Read a summary of this and other changes to the TCPS 2 in the new release.

Additional Guidance is provided by:


The Online Tutorial for the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS 2)

All researchers completing research involving human participants are required to complete the online tutorial, Tri-Council Policy Statement 2: Course on Research Ethics (TCPS 2: CORE-2022), and to submit a copy of their certificate with their submission to the Research Ethics Board. Researchers who do not submit their certificate will receive a conditional approval until they have completed the tutorial and submitted their certificate to Research Services (researcherportal@upei.ca).

The TCPS 2: CORE-2022 focuses on ethics guidance that is applicable to all research involving human participants, regardless of discipline or methodology and consists of nine modules and a knowledge consolidation exercise:

  • Module A1 – Introduction
  • Module A2 – Scope of TCPS 2
  • Module A3 – Risks and Benefits
  • Module A4 – Consent
  • Module A5 – Fairness and Equity
  • Module A6 – Privacy and Confidentiality
  • Module A7 – Conflicts of Interest
  • Module A8 – Research Ethics Board Review
  • Module A9 – Research Involving Indigenous Peoples
  • Knowledge Consolidation Exercise

The new course is self-paced and should take approximately four hours to complete. It is possible for users to complete the course over multiple sessions by saving their progress and resuming later. A CORE-2022 Certificate of Completion will be issued to users following the successful completion of the Knowledge Consolidation Exercise. CORE-2022 is compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) to ensure accessibility for all users.

Useful Links

Tutorials