COVID-19 FAQs

Following an initial suspension of face-to-face research, we have progressively eased restrictions in line with state and territory government regulations. We’re sending regular email updates to our researchers advising on the easing of these restrictions and the current status of research. Please check your ACU email account often and make sure you’re familiar with the advice relevant to you.

The advice below was provided on 1 November 2020.

It is now possible to conduct all types of research (with the exception of research involving at-risk participants) across every Australian jurisdiction (although travel between some jurisdictions is still restricted).

Please note that the conduct of research involving face-to-face and physical contact is contingent upon adherence to the below outlined hygiene and risk management protocols:

• A screening protocol must be implemented to ensure any participants attending ACU facilities and/or coming into close/physical contact with ACU staff are, as much as can be reasonably ascertained, healthy and at low risk of transmitting COVID-19. We will allow individual research groups to develop protocols that best suit their needs but require that, at a minimum, you confirm participant health status and risk-level prior to participation and again on the day of participation. For guidance, download our screening tool template (PDF), which you are free to use or tailor to your needs.
• On the day of participation (or if multiple days, on their first participation), ask research participants to provide you with a current mobile number or email address, and keep a log of who has attended the research space (including staff movements). This information may be required to support contact tracing efforts, and records should be maintained for a period of at least 28 days (from a participant’s last participation). To protect the privacy and confidentiality of your research participants, these records should be stored securely and separately to their personal research data.
• In engaging with research participants, adopt enhanced hygiene practices. This includes regularly washing hands, avoiding touching your face, following cough and sneeze etiquette, increasing access to fresh air by (where possible) opening doors and windows, and disinfecting devices, equipment and surfaces used in research. You should also make it easy for your participants to practise good hygiene. This includes providing access to tissues and hand sanitiser, removing items that might spread infection (such as waiting room magazines), and clearly signposting bathrooms and wash areas. For more information on good hygiene practice, view the Australian Government Department of Health Good Hygiene for COVID-19 Information webpage. For guidance on good cleaning/disinfecting practice, download the Safe Work Australia Workplace Cleaning Checklist (PDF).
• For all close/physical contact with research participants, employ personal protective equipment (PPE). This includes, at a minimum, disposable gloves, face masks (level 1, 2 or 3 surgical mask) and gowns. It is the responsibility of the named chief investigator to ensure that appropriate PPE is provided to researchers and, where applicable, participants, as well as to ensure researchers are trained in the appropriate use of PPE and that records of this training are maintained.
• Where it is not absolutely necessary to be in close/physical contact with research participants, revert to standard social distancing protocols, including:
• maintaining a physical distance of at least 1.5 metres from others
• allowing for four square metres of space for each person within the premises
• limiting contact time to two hours
• limiting gatherings in line with state/territory requirements (ensure you account for both ACU staff and research participants).
• As much as possible, minimise unnecessary contact. This includes scheduling the arrival and departure of participants so that they do not come into contact with one another, and ensuring that only those researchers/staff whose presence is required are onsite.
• While engaging with research participants, it is your responsibility to regularly check in with them and monitor for signs of ill-health. If you suspect a participant is showing signs of COVID-19 infection (noting these can be similar to the signs of influenza or the common cold), you should suspend their participation in the research immediately, and take the following measures:
• Send the participant home, ensuring they exit the premises quickly and with minimal contact
• As appropriate, encourage the participant to seek medical advice and/or be tested for COVID-19
• Where there is a risk of exposure to ACU staff, these staff should self-isolate, seek medical advice and/or be tested for COVID-19
• Clean areas and items with which the participant has come into contact
• Inform your head of department and this office (res.ethics@acu.edu.au) at the earliest opportunity
• Inform ACU via the link to COVID-19 medical advice and reporting
• As appropriate, follow up with the participant to confirm their status
• As appropriate, re-engage with the participant.

For guidance on identifying the symptoms of COVID-19, download the Australian Government Department of Health poster. To ensure you and your colleagues are aware of and have easy access to this information, you may wish to print a copy and post it within your research premises.

It is the responsibility of all researchers to ensure these protocols are followed and documented and researchers should be aware that their projects and protocols may be subject to an audit by the Research Ethics and Integrity team at any time, without notice.
Additional points:

• In line with guidance from ACU’s Recovery Management Team on a return to work, researchers who are themselves at increased risk of COVID-19 infection should speak to their supervisor about the risks and available options before engaging in face-to-face research.
• The above advice applies to all research being conducted under the auspices of the ACU Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC). For ACU researchers working under the auspices of an external HREC (such as a hospital HREC), and where no research is conducted on ACU premises, researchers should defer to the guidance being provided by that HREC.

As you are all aware the COVID-19 situation is evolving rapidly. In addition to following the relevant public health orders in the state or territory in which you work, as well as the guidance being provided by ACU, we ask that you exercise common sense in avoiding unnecessary risks to you and your research participants. As always, be aware that it may be necessary to suspend or make changes to your research at short notice.

In accordance with the Australian Government Department of Health, those most at risk from COVID-19 are:

• People with compromised immune systems (such as people who have cancer)
• Older people aged 70 and over
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and people in remote communities
• People with chronic medical conditions
• People in group residential settings
• People with disability
• People in detention facilities

For all jurisdictions, approval to conduct research involving at-risk populations will be considered on a case-by-case basis. If you wish to conduct research in at-risk populations, we ask that you email the Research Ethics and Integrity team directly, outlining the particulars of your research.

The ARC and NHMRC have confirmed that any variations to funded 'research projects and researchers that have been directly affected by the Coronavirus pandemic' can be considered via their usual post-award procedures. Impacts may involve 'changes in circumstances, including scope changes, personnel changes, suspensions and extensions to end dates'. The ARC and NHMRC will consider variation and extension requests on a case-by-case basis.

Review the latest information and communications from your funding body to check if this research can be delayed/extended. If the research can be extended and conducted at a later date and you would like to do so, notify your research team and submit the details and budget variation to the post-award team. Notify the contracts team of your proposed changes and ensure they are able to be made from a contractual perspective. If the research cannot be extended and the project must be closed down, please contact post-award.

Yes. Research that is able to be conducted remotely and that does not place researchers or research participants at increased risk of contracting a COVID-19 infection may continue as approved.

Below are updates on research involving or being conducted in state schools in the ACT,New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria. For research involving state schools in other jurisdictions, please email the Research Ethics and Integrity team at res.ethics@acu.edu.au, outlining the particulars of your research.

Please note that this advice relates to state schools only. In most jurisdictions, research involving Catholic and independent schools is overseen by the local diocese or school principal respectively, and the conduct of research within these schools is still permissible – providing it complies with state and federal government restrictions, as well as ACU’s own restrictions on research.

The advice below was provided on 30 September 2020.

Victoria

All research and evaluation activity involving Victorian government schools and Victorian early childhood sites requires approval through the Department of Education and Training’s (DET’s) Research in Schools and Early Childhood settings (RISEC) process.

The move to increased restrictions across Victoria necessitated that DET pause the RISEC process and research and evaluation activity involving schools and early childhood sites. These activities are suspended for the remainder of 2020.

Therefore, the following should not proceed:

• RISEC-approved research and evaluations
• any other contact with schools or early childhood sites, staff or children to conduct, or to recruit for, research and evaluation activity
• RISEC applications and amendment requests.

The Department requests that we carefully consider the need for research involving schools and early childhood sites, and to make use of existing datasets where possible.

The RISEC website will be updated when further information becomes available. Any queries may be directed to research@education.vic.gov.au.

Australian Capital Territory/New South Wales

For both the ACT and NSW, the requirements for research involving, or being conducted in, state schools remain unchanged. Note however that education department requirements are overlaid by the COVID-19 restrictions of the relevant state or territory government, as well as by ACU’s own restrictions on research.

For information on conducting research in ACT state schools, visit the ACT Education Directorate’s website.

For information on conducting research in NSW state schools, see the NSW SERAP website.

Queensland

From Term 4, which commenced on Tuesday 6 October 2020, the usual central and regional office appraisal and approval processes for research in state education sites will resume.

In all cases, researchers are requested to:

• comply with directives on the Queensland Health website
• limit imposition on school leaders, staff, students and parents/carers
• consider using remote methods of data collection if possible
• follow any additional instructions from school principals and site managers
• respect the right of school principals and site managers to decline to participate in the research at present.

Research applications are submitted through the Department’s online portal: the Queensland Education Research Inventory (QERI). Please note the processing time for research applications continues to be longer than usual so allow extra time for your application to be processed.

The contract milestones and timeframes in research contracts and agreements for your project may be affected. Legal issues may arise from extended timeframes or changes to protocols. The contract parties will be able to consider these changes and usually agree to an appropriate outcome. However, you must contact the Office of Research Services (the Director, Dr Michael Baker and the Research Contracts Team) before you contact or make arrangements with any other party or funder for your project.

Candidates should contact their Principal Supervisor and, where appropriate, the faculty Associate Dean Research to discuss strategies and decide an appropriate course of action for their research project.

In general, candidates whose research does not involve face-to-face interactions, or whose research can be undertaken remotely, should proceed as normal in consultation with their Principal Supervisor.

Candidates whose research project involves face-to-face interactions/contact must follow the directions and restrictions in effect in the relevant state/territory and, in consultation with their Principal Supervisor, consider strategies to progress their research during these periods of unavoidable delay. Strategies may include literature reviews, meta-analyses, data collection, data analysis (as appropriate).

Candidates who are unable to continue their research should consider a variation to their candidature. All variation requests must be submitted via Orion.

International candidates

Before appIying for any variation of candidature, international candidates should check with the Department of Home Affairs to ensure the variation is permitted by the conditions of visa they have been granted (e.g. suspension of candidature, change to part-time enrolment).

Suspension of RTP scholarships (fees offset and stipend)

Candidates who are unable to continue with their course in a meaningful way due to restrictions imposed under the coronavirus pandemic should consider applying for a suspension of candidature. A suspension means that the clock on your candidature stops temporarily. When you return from your approved suspension, your clock restarts and your milestone and thesis submission dates will be adjusted and communicated to you.

Extraordinary extension of RTP scholarships (fees offset and stipend)

• Is a temporary RTP measure legislated by the Australian Government which is beyond the provisions in the current ACU RTP Scholarship Policy
• To be eligible to submit an extraordinary extension request, candidates must have been enrolled as a HDR candidate at ACU as at 1 March 2020
• The maximum duration of an extraordinary extension is six (6) calendar months regardless of study mode
• Candidates do not need to submit an extraordinary extension request immediately. ACU can approve such extraordinary extension requests at any point before 31 December 2022 even if the extension itself will occur after that date
• Candidates who submit a request for an extraordinary extension must demonstrate that coronavirus restrictions have had an adverse material impact on their research and include appropriate evidence and supporting information along with their request. Candidates who have had personal adverse impacts due to coronavirus (e.g. who are unwell due to coronavirus or who have carer duties) should use the standard RTP provisions available for leave or apply for a suspension of candidature. Should you have any questions about the appropriate type of variation for your circumstances, please contact HDR.Projects@acu.edu.au
• At the minimum this should include:
  • Details of the work all work undertaken on their degree during the timeframe that their research was adversely materially impacted by coronavirus restrictions. In other words, how did you continue to progress your research despite the coronavirus restrictions
  • A supporting statement from their Principal Supervisor confirming the work undertaken and the timeframes the student’s research was adversely materially impacted by coronavirus restrictions, including information detailing the nature and extent of the impact of the coronavirus restrictions
  • An annotated timeline to completion endorsed by the Principal Supervisor outlining how and in what timeframe you will complete your thesis

Leave entitlements

Candidate leave entitlements are outlined in the appropriate sections of the HDR Regulations and the ACU RTP Scholarship Policy.

Candidates whose research project has not been adversely materially impacted by the coronavirus restrictions but who have been affected in their personal life should be encouraged to use the provisions to vary candidature as set out in the HDR Regulations and the ACU RTP Scholarship Policy.

Other avenues of support and information for students:

• ACU's COVID 19 FAQ financial work and legal support in Student Portal
• Australian Government's Services Australia
• Study Australia Support for International Students

Further information on the Australian Government’s RTP temporary measures can be found on the DESE FAQ page.

All requests to suspend or vary a HDR stipend scholarship require consideration on a case-by-case basis as a decision depends upon the source of the funding, conditions of award, and how far the student has progressed in their candidature.

In line with temporary RTP measures legislated by the Australian Government, the University may consider extraordinary variations to an RTP stipend scholarship. For details, refer to ‘Extraordinary extension of RTP scholarships’ information in the Question above.

RTP Stipend scholarship recipients may also apply to vary their stipend scholarship under the existing provisions in the RTP Scholarship Policy.

Stipend scholarship recipients whose scholarship is not RTP-funded should consult their Conditions of Award for information before submitting a request to vary their stipend scholarship. Decisions will be on a case by case basis and will depend upon the source of the scholarship funding.

Candidates who require information on their Conditions of Award should email Candidature Services on res.cand@acu.edu.au

Many ethics applications are reviewed and approved by other organisations and registered with ACU. For ACU researchers working under the auspices of an external HREC (such as a hospital HREC), and where no research is conducted on ACU premises, researchers should defer to the guidance being provided by that HREC.