• Your samples & data

    How samples
    & data are
    collected, stored
    and accessed:

    Click Here

  • Projects

    Projects that
    have been
    approved to
    receive NICB
    samples and data:

    Click Here

  • Publications

    A list of
    publications
    can be
    found here:|

    Click Here

  • Public Engagement

    NICB PPI
    Advisory Board

    Click Here

  • Links

    NICB
    documents:



    Click Here

Thank you for your interest in the NICB. Your participation will allow researchers to address many key questions in COVID-19 research and we are grateful for your time and donation of your biological samples and healthcare information. 

If you have any further questions or are interested in participating in the NICB, please contact us via our contact page.

How samples & information (data) are collected, stored and accessed:

What is a Biobank? A biobank is a collection of biological samples (such as blood samples, nasopharyngeal swabs, urine samples etc) and healthcare information (data), donated by people for health research.

The National Irish COVID-19 Biobank is collecting biological samples and healthcare information from people who currently have COVID-19 (at the time of taking the blood sample), who have recovered from COVID-19 or who are attending hospital with Long Covid. The NICB will also include some people who do not have/have never had COVID-19 such as people receiving COVID-19 vaccines as well as hospital staff so that we can look for differences that will tell us more about how people respond to infection.

We will initially be inviting people to participate in the NICB who are in-patients in hospital or attending an out-patient hospital clinic.

The N ICB will also seek to incorporate existing COVID-19 sample collections from the last few years to make the biobank even more robust and relevant.

Samples:

Biological samples will be processed in a University laboratory and stored in a specific NICB-controlled freezer. The NICB has 5 sample storage locations which are under the custodianship of the University partners. These are: 

  • Trinity College Dublin (biobank location is Trinity Translational Medicine Institute, St James’s Hospital, Dublin 8)

  • University College Dublin (biobank location is the Centre for Experimental Pathogen Host Research, Belfield, UCD)

  • Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland (biobank location is Department of Pathology, RCSI, Beaumont Hospital Campus)

  • University College Cork (biobank location is Western Gateway Building, UCC)

  •  National University of Ireland, Galway (biobank location is the Lambe Institute, NUI Galway, University Hospital Galway Campus)

If you attend a hospital that is not one of the 5 biobank locations (above), your sample will be transported by an authorised courier to one of these locations according to an agreed transfer route. See map.

Figure 1: NICB Sample Storage Locations

Information (data):

The NICB will store coded healthcare information, and any research results at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) on a secure server. Coding is where information that might identify you (such as your name) has been replaced with a unique code (for example - NICB 001). This means you cannot be directly identified from the information. Coded information will be entered by a clinical research team at the hospital site onto the NICB database. The database is built and managed by Trinity College Dublin staff, using a REDCap online platform.

The NICB collects the following types of information:

  • Healthcare information:  Health Information which may be taken from your hospital chart, hospital electronic patient record, other hospital databases or may have been already shared from your GP record provided to the hospital. It includes for example your treatments, test results, images/scans, family medical history, and other types of health information such as health-related lifestyle data.

  • Socio demographic information: including for example date of birth, ethnicity, education, living conditions. Your date of birth is needed as one way to verify your identity should you transfer between hospitals during your treatment.

  • Questionnaires:  from time to time, we may also collect specific information from standard questionnaires that can be compared with other studies internationally. Each questionnaire will be approved for use by a research ethics committee before we ask you if you are happy to complete it. 

  • Data linked from other national databases:  Other national databases exist which may hold important and relevant COVID-19 related information about you. Your hospital may access these databases to share relevant information about you with NICB. 

Figure 2: How your information and samples will be collected and stored in the NICB

 

Who can access the samples and information?

The NICB has developed very strict procedures for who can access the coded information and samples in the NICB. In order to access coded information or samples in the NICB, researchers must: 

  1. Apply to the Access Committee of the NICB; and

  2. Get ethical approval from an independent research ethics committee; and 

  3. Sign and adhere to a legal contract outlining how the NICB information and/or samples are to be used and kept confidential. 

This 3-step process is the same whether the researcher works for a university or a health-related commercial company and ensures that sharing is limited to research which is in the wider public interest. Any use of your coded information and samples must respect the consent that you have given. 

How sample and information access is approved and shared

Projects that have been approved to receive NICB samples and information:

Only projects relating to COVID-19 research will be approved to receive NICB coded information and samples. Furthermore, research projects will only be approved if they align with one of NICB’s Strategic Research Prioritisation Areas. These are currently Long Covid, Therapeutics and Vaccine Response. 

Summaries of COVID-19 research projects that have been approved to receive coded information and samples from NICB will be listed here:

Note: At the current time, NICB is not ready to accept applications from researchers (April 2024)

 Research Publications:

All researchers who are approved to access information and samples will be required to acknowledge the NICB in their scientific publications. A list of publications can be found here:

 Public Engagement:

We are currently recruiting for a Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Advisory Board who will bring the voice and perspective of patients and the public,

independent of specific causes, to contribute to shaping NICB’s activities.

If you are interested in joining the NICB PPI Advisory Board, please complete an Expression of Interest form which can be found here: https://forms.office.com/e/GXy8GqUFay

To learn more about the PPI Advisory Board, please follow this link: https://shorturl.at/fCPU4

 Links to NICB documents:

Participant Information Leaflets:

For participants recruited from November 2023 - to date:

All hospitals are using the same leaflet, to view the leaflet click here

For participants recruited between December 2022-October 2023:

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