Ethics approval obtained at your institution does not transfer. Your partner's institution will require its own, on its own timeline, and possibly asking for different things.
This is not duplication to be worked around. Two systems can both be rigorous and still require genuinely different things.
Approvals to plan for
- Ethics approval at each participating institution.
- National-level approval for some categories of research.
- Permits for sample collection, export, or work in specific locations.
- Approval for transferring personal data across borders.
- Build these into the timeline as months, not weeks.
Consent across languages
- Consent documents must be in the participants' language, professionally translated.
- Back-translate to check that meaning survived.
- Consent is a process, not a signature — this holds regardless of jurisdiction.
- Consider literacy levels and use verbal consent procedures where appropriate.
- What counts as adequate consent may differ between the two ethics committees.
Data transfer and storage
- Check whether personal data may leave the country and under what conditions.
- Agree where the master copy is held and who has access.
- Anonymise before transfer where the research design allows.
- Document the arrangement in the collaboration agreement.
- Assuming your home rules apply everywhere is the most common serious error.
Sample and specimen work
- Export permits are often required and take time.
- Agree ownership of remaining material after the study ends.
- Agree whether samples may be used in future unrelated studies.
- Historically this has been a major source of grievance and it is easily avoided.
Benefit sharing
- Agree what returns to the community and institution that hosted the work.
- Capacity building, equipment, training and co-authorship all count.
- Write it into the agreement rather than leaving it to goodwill.
- Report results back to participants in accessible form.
One thing worth remembering
Assuming your own jurisdiction's rules apply everywhere is the most common serious error in international research.
It is also the one least likely to be caught in advance, because it does not feel like an assumption — it feels like knowing how research works. Ask your partner what their system requires, early, and treat the answer as authoritative for their side.
Câu hỏi thường gặp
Does ethics approval transfer between countries?
No — your partner's institution will require its own approval on its own timeline and may ask for different things, and both systems can be rigorous while requiring genuinely different things.
What approvals should you plan for?
Ethics approval at each institution, national-level approval for some research categories, permits for sample collection or export, and approval for cross-border personal data transfer.
How should consent be handled across languages?
Consent documents professionally translated into participants' language, back-translated to check meaning survived, treated as a process not a signature, with attention to literacy levels.
What about data transfer and storage?
Check whether personal data may leave the country, agree where the master copy is held and who has access, anonymise before transfer where possible, and document it in the agreement.
What does benefit sharing involve?
Agreeing what returns to the host community and institution — capacity building, equipment, training and co-authorship all count — written into the agreement rather than left to goodwill.
