What's new with Worktribe

Work to date

We have consulted with different stakeholders, including all School Research Ethics Coordinators (SRECs), Library Services, Information Governance and subject specialists across the institution to determine the most appropriate question sets for students and researchers, to ensure relevance and robustness. Worktribe is a highly configurable system meaning that for projects with low ethical risk, fewer questions will need answering compared to higher risk research, where questions will be more comprehensive. We are also able to ask slightly different questions for UG and PGT students, compared to staff and PGR applicants. This all helps to ensure we stay compliant with ever-changing sector requirements, and we can appropriately support students and colleagues with their ethics applications and research.

Work with Human Resources, Information Governance, Digital Services, and external organisations has provided us with technical, administrative, and security advice for implementing Worktribe. Our colleagues in Digital Services have been working hard to enable successful integration of the system ready for us to be able to roll the system out across the institution.

Training has been held for Local Research Ethics Coordinators (LRECs) throughout July, allowing them to interrogate the new system and provide us with insights into its functionality. Additional system demos held for other Schools in July have helped senior leaders, Directors of Research and other colleagues see the benefits of Worktribe and their valuable feedback informed further configuration decisions.

Moving forward

Carnegie School of Sport and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences will be piloting the Worktribe Ethics System in August which will test both the functionality and workflows before the full rollout. We’re grateful for their enthusiasm and support with this. Guidance for both Schools on the purpose and practicalities of the rollout are being shared.

Online guidance such as downloadable documents and short videos will soon be available on the Research Systems webpages.

We are running twice weekly online drop-in sessions for all staff for any Worktribe queries via Microsoft Teams.

Going Live

We are working towards a Go Live Date of the 15 September 2025 where Worktribe will be rolled out across LBU. From this date, all new ethics applications should be submitted through Worktribe, rather than going through the REO system.

We are aware there are a few cases where this may not be possible. If you think this applies to you or your students, please contact us and we can facilitate the best way forward.

What can you do?

There are several things you can do to prepare yourself for the change in systems:

1. Log into REO and save any of your existing approvals to your own records ahead of the future archiving of the old system. Timing of the archiving are being finalised and will be communicated separately.
2. Attend any Worktribe demos or workshops offered within your School.
3. Attend training if you are an LREC or research administrator.
4. Speak to your SREC or your LRECs to get more information and understanding of the new system.
5. Get access to the Test environment via your SREC and view the new question sets. You can use this to help develop resources for students if needed.
6. Update any lecture resources or module/course handbooks to reflect the new system.

For more information and support

If you have any questions, please speak to your local School Research Ethics Coordinator, or contact Charlotte Pettitt, Research Integrity and Ethics Manager, or Amy Campbell, Research Systems Manager.