Consent in Practice and Ethics Approval

Consent in the field means navigating community leaders, minors and incapacitated adults, and careful documentation, then packaging it all for an ethics committee. This level takes you from a difficult consent conversation to an approved, well-maintained ethics submission.

Who this level is for

PIs, coordinators and research officers who will obtain consent and manage ethics approvals. Recommended after Level 1.

What you'll learn

• How individual consent works alongside community engagement, gatekeepers, gender dynamics and community advisory boards
• Consent in special situations: assent for children, surrogate consent for incapacitated adults, and deferred consent in emergencies (conceptually)
• How to document consent properly and manage refusals and withdrawals, including what happens to already-collected data
• Who regulates research: ethics committees (IRB/REC), national regulators for trials, and institutional approvals
• What goes into an ethics submission, and how initial approval, continuing review and amendments work

You finish with: A one-page informed-consent approach + your list of approvals needed.