CanReview’s online platform, Stream, can be used for multi-site, pan-Canadian, health-based studies being conducted at any CanReview Participating Site.
Your study is right for CanReview if your institution is a Participating Site, and your study involves a minimum of 2 sites from 2 or more provinces or territories. If your study will have participating sites in only one province and a single review system operates within that province, we recommend you use the provincial system for research ethics review. If you are looking to join a study, it must have received ethics approval in CanReview. If you plan to work with an institution that is not yet listed as a participating site, please contact info@canreview.ca.
The Stream system can accommodate both clinical trials and observational studies.
For the provision of streamlined research ethics review services provided by CanReview, the industry sponsor will be charged a fair fee. Only industry-sponsored or industry-supported studies are charged ethics review fees. Invoices are sent directly to the sponsors listed in the ethics application forms.
Canadian Biotech companies can capitalize on the value and efficiency of the CanReview system at a special discounted rate for multi-site, pan-Canadian clinical trials.
| Fees Charged to Study Sponsor | Number of Research Sites Participating in the Study | Distribution of Fees | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| REB of Record Fee per Study | Total Site Participation Fees* ($1000/site) | Fees Retained by CanReview | ||
| $5,100 + HST per research site | 2 | $7,500 | $2,000 | $700 |
| 3 | $8,250 | $3,000 | $4,050 | |
| 4 | $9,000 | $4,000 | $7,400 | |
| 5 | $9,750 | $5,000 | $10,750 | |
| $4,100 + HST per research site after first 5 sites | 6 | $10,500 | $6,000 | $13,100 |
| 7 | $11,250 | $7,000 | $15,450 | |
| 8 | $12,000 | $8,000 | $17,800 | |
| 9 | $12,750 | $9,000 | $20,150 | |
| 10 | $13,500 | $10,000 | $22,500 | |
| $3,600 + HST per research site after first 10 sites | 11 | $14,250 | $11,000 | $24,350 |
| 12 | $15,000 | $12,000 | $26,200 | |
| 13 | $15,750 | $13,000 | $28,050 | |
| 14 | $16,500 | $14,000 | $29,900 | |
| 15 | $17,250 | $15,000 | $31,750 | |
| 16 | $18,000 | $16,000 | $33,600 | |
| 17 | $18,750 | $17,000 | $35,450 | |
| 18 | $19,500 | $18,000 | $37,300 | |
| 19 | $20,250 | $19,000 | $39,150 | |
| 20 | $21,000 | $20,000 | $41,000 | |
* Site participation fees are intended to provide support for the ongoing operations of Research Ethics Boards (REB) at institutions. Site participation fees will only be disbursed to sites that have an internal and/or institutional REB supported by their institution participating in CanReview.
Note: Study sponsors will be charged an additional fee of $2,750 + Applicable Tax per Study-Wide Continuing Review ($2,500 is disbursed to the REB of Record and $250 is retained by CanReview)
* Prices are exclusive of HST | Download PDF Version
| Fees Charged to Study Sponsor | Number of Research Sites Participating in the Study | Distribution of Fees | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| REB of Record Fee per Study | Total Site Participation Fees* ($1000/site) | Fees Retained by CanReview | ||
| $4,750 + HST per research site | 2 | $7,500 | $2,000 | $0 |
| $4,100 + HST per research site after first 2 sites | 3 | $8,250 | $3,000 | $2,350 |
| 4 | $9,000 | $4,000 | $4,700 | |
| 5 | $9,750 | $5,000 | $7,050 | |
| 6 | $10,500 | $6,000 | $8,900 | |
| $3,600 + HST per research site after first 5 sites | 7 | $11,250 | $7,000 | $10,750 |
| 8 | $12,000 | $8,000 | $12,600 | |
| 9 | $12,750 | $9,000 | $14,450 | |
| 10 | $13,500 | $10,000 | $16,300 | |
| $3,100 + HST per research site after first 10 sites | 11 | $14,250 | $11,000 | $17,650 |
| 12 | $15,000 | $12,000 | $25,200 | |
| 13 | $15,750 | $13,000 | $26,550 | |
| 14 | $16,500 | $14,000 | $27,900 | |
| 15 | $17,250 | $15,000 | $29,250 | |
| 16 | $18,000 | $16,000 | $30,600 | |
| 17 | $18,750 | $17,000 | $31,950 | |
| 18 | $19,500 | $18,000 | $33,300 | |
| 19 | $20,250 | $19,000 | $34,650 | |
| 20 | $21,000 | $20,000 | $36,000 | |
* Site participation fees are intended to provide support for the ongoing operations of Research Ethics Boards (REB) at institutions. Site participation fees will only be disbursed to sites that have an internal and/or institutional REB supported by their institution participating in CanReview.
Note: Study sponsors will be charged an additional fee of $2,750 + Applicable Tax per Study-Wide Continuing Review ($2,500 is disbursed to the REB of Record and $250 is retained by CanReview)
* Prices are exclusive of HST | Download PDF Version
The Clinical Trial Initial Application (CTIA) is the first application submitted for a study using the Stream platform.
This application is created by the Lead Study Team, which will serve as the lead site for this project. The Lead Study Team is responsible for all ethics submissions that apply to the overall study.
Please note the Lead Applicant (LA) listed in the CTIA must be an investigator affiliated with one of CanReview’s participating sites. The LA is usually the overall study lead/recipient of grant funding (investigator-initiated studies) or determined with input from the sponsor (industry-sponsored studies).
The CTIA includes study-wide information that will apply to all sites within a project. This includes study risks and benefits, protocol, and the study-wide consent form template.
The CanReview Informed Consent Form Templates serve as the basis for the consent form for studies using Stream. At this time, the CanReview Single Informed Consent Tactical Team, comprised of cross-disciplinary clinical trials and research ethics professionals from across Canada, have endorsed the following Informed Consent Templates for CanReview:
The appropriate template should be used when creating the study-specific consent form submitted with the initial study-wide application in Stream.
If you are planning to submit an oncology pediatrics study to CanReview, we recommend connecting with the CHEER team. For inquiries, please contact the CHEER team at cheer@queensu.ca
Templates can be found on the Templates & Forms page.
The study-wide initial application is created from your homepage within Stream. For more information, please see the “Getting Started” User Manual on the Training & Supports page.
The user who creates a new study in Stream will automatically be given the role of Project Owner. The Project Owner has the ability to create/edit any application form and add or remove any roles or sharing privileges. It is recommended that the Sponsor, Lead Applicant or study-wide research coordinator create the study in Stream and act as the Project Owner.
Important: The Project Owner is the ONLY user who can upgrade the study when CanReview releases a new set of application forms into the system. Please ensure that if the Project Owner is leaving the study, they transfer the ownership to a different user.
When a study is first created, only the Project Owner (the person who created the project) will be able to see and access the study. The Project Owner will need to use the collaboration features to give access and permissions to other research team members. Once other users have permission (e.g., through their new role or when the form is shared), they can also use the collaboration features to set up collaborators at their site.
The Roles functionality allows users to share access to a study in the system with other members of the study team at the lead site and/or one of the participating sites. Each role comes with pre-defined permissions that allows a user to Read, Write, Share, etc. Giving a user access to a study grants them access to all existing applications for their site, and all forms created for the site in the future. They also receive read-only access to all existing and future study-wide applications.
When a study is first created, only the project owner (the person who created the project) will be able to see and access the study. The project owner will need to use the collaboration features to give access and permissions to other research team members. Once other users have permission (e.g., through their new role or when the form is shared), they can also use the collaboration features to set up collaborators at their site.
The ‘Roles’ functionality is the most commonly used collaboration feature because it gives the user access and permissions for the entire study period. This means that, as new application forms are created, users with the appropriate role will automatically be given corresponding access and permissions. Similarly, if a user is given a role later in the life of the study, they will have access and permissions to currently existing forms and all previous forms based on their role.
Before your study-wide initial application can be submitted for review, it must be electronically signed off by the Lead Applicant listed in the application form. For more information about how signatures work in the system, see the “Responding to a Signature Request” user guide on the Training & Supports page.
Once your study-wide initial application is submitted, system administrators will conduct a brief administrative screen of your application. This is to ensure that your study meets the CanReview mandate (i.e., includes at least two participating sites across two Provinces/Territories) and has used the appropriate Informed Consent Form template (located on the Training & Supports page).
System administrators will also screen to ensure the appropriate individuals are listed and have signed your application.
If your study requires modification based on the elements described above, your application will be returned back to you along with a review letter. Once these corrections are made, you can re-submit the application in the system so it can be assigned to the REB of Record.
CanReview accepts both investigator-initiated and industry-sponsored multi-site clinical trials for review. For each clinical trial, a CanReview participating REB will be selected to be the single REB of Record. Selection criteria to be prioritized include REB specialization, the home REB of the country-wide applicant (in the case of investigator-initiated studies), and the equitable distribution of studies across CanReview participating REBs.
Learn more about the REB assignment process here .
Once your REB of Record has been selected, you can contact them directly using the correspondence feature on your project in the system. For more information on how to contact the REB of Record please see the “Correspondence” QuickGuide on the Training & Supports page.
Following their review of an application, an REB may request additional information, clarification, or changes. All REB review and decision letters are accessible within the Stream platform. All queries from the REB of Record must be responded to directly in Stream. Please see the “Finding an Approval Letter” QuickGuide on the Training & Supports page, for instructions on how to find the approval letter (or any letter sent by the REB) for your application.
Receiving study-wide initial application approval does not mean that you can begin the study at your site. Each participating site must submit a Participating Site Initial Application (PSIA) in order to obtain ethics approval to conduct the study at their site. This includes the Lead Applicant’s site.
The Participating Site Initial Application (PSIA) is the application each site (including the Lead Applicant site) must submit to the REB of Record following the approval of the study-wide initial application for their study. The PSIA contains details that are only specific to that site, such as the Principal Investigator’s contact information, the site informed consent form (creating using the ICF Template), and details of how (if applicable) your site’s study conduct will differ from the protocol outlined within the study-wide initial application.
This application is created by the Lead Applicant Team, who then can share the form with members of the local site team.
Detailed guides on how to create a PSIA and share an application with other team members can be found in the “Roles and Sharing” user guide on the Training & Supports page.
Only once your project has study-wide initial approval and your site has PSIA approval, can you begin research at your site.
Once your PSIA is submitted, administrators will conduct a brief administrative screen of your application.
If your study requires modification based on the elements described above, your application will be returned to you with a review letter. Once these corrections are made, you can resubmit the application in the system so it can be reviewed by your REB of Record.
Once your PSIA passes the pre-screening step, it is assigned to the same REB that reviewed your study’s initial application. You can contact them directly using the correspondence feature within Stream. For more information on how to contact the REB of Record please see the “Correspondence” QuickGuide on the Training & Supports page.
Following their review of an application, an REB may request additional information, clarification, or changes. All REB review and decision letters are accessible within the Stream system. All queries from the REB of Record must be responded to directly in Stream. For more information about how to respond to a request for changes from the REB, please see the “Request for Changes from REB” QuickGuide on the Training & Supports page.
All submissions will go directly to the REB of Record (i.e., post-approval applications are not screened by CanReview administrators). Please note that once a study-wide post-approval application is approved by the REB of Record, this approval is applicable to all sites within your project.
Participating Site Review Applications must be submitted to the REB of Record on a yearly basis in order to renew ethics approval for your study. These must be submitted at both the study-wide and site level, including the site serving as the Lead Applicant. Please note the there is a single ethics expiry date for the entire study and all participating sites. This date is based on the date of approval for the study-wide initial application.
For the Study-Wide Continuing Review (SWCR), the Lead Applicant will submit the SWCR by the submission deadline for the full board meeting occurring prior to expiry. Please note a lapse in study-wide ethics approval will simultaneously result in a lapse at all participating sites.
All Participating Site Continuing Review (PSCR) forms must be created and submitted by each site by the submission deadline for full board meeting occurring prior to expiry date. Sites can submit their PSCR forms even if the SWCR form hasn’t been submitted. It is important to remember the Lead Applicant must also submit a PSCR for their own site (in addition to the SWCR form).
