RITHIM Special Update: October 2025

Migration of Ethics-Approved Projects from the Bannatyne REB

Testing of the migration of ethics documents for ethics-approved projects to the RITHIM Harmony system is currently underway. Please be advised of the following important dates with respect to the final import of projects:

• October 29, 2025: last day the Bannatyne office will be accepting follow-on applications (e.g., amendments, safety updates, major deviations, etc.) for active/approved research.
  • Any follow-on applications submitted after this date will be returned.
  • For annual approvals, please plan ahead to ensure you remain compliant.  Based on your ethics expiry date, plan your submission to the Bannatyne office prior to October 29^th or in Harmony after November 10^th.  For projects expiring during this period, approvals will be generated as they are received and reviewed. This means your next ethics expiry date may change.  Please check your certificate to confirm your expiry date.
• November 10, 2025: Harmony system is open for validation of imported projects and subsequent follow-on applications for University of Manitoba applicants.
• November 24, 2025: Deadline for responses to tabled applications to the Bannatyne office
• December 5, 2025: Deadline for responses to conditional approvals to the Bannatyne office

Also be reminded that for In-flight projects, new applications by UM applicants through historical processes to PHRPC and health system organizations will end December 31, 2025. Non-UM post-secondary institutions will be notified once delegation of health research reviews by their institution occurs and new applications through historical processes will stop.

RITHIM Program Officer Review

Once an application passes the system automated Completeness Check and is submitted to RITHIM, it will undergo RITHIM Program Officer review. This administrative pre-review plays an important role in ensuring a submission is ready for ethics, privacy, and health care institution analysis and decision. Any feedback from the RITHIM Program Officer review will be returned to the applicant as Corrections Required. Applicants will receive an automated system email noting their application requires correction and will also see the status of their application in their Work Area as “Application Incomplete”.
Before submitting, ensure the following:

• Your application is “health” research as determined by the RITHIM routing questions:  Do I Need RITHIM Approval?
• You have answered “Yes” to at least one of the following questions:
  • Does the project plan include potential recruitment of participants?
  • Does this project involve the use of data and/or information not collected directly from participants (i.e. secondary data such as administrative data, data from medical records, etc.)?
  • Does this project involve biological specimens?
  • Does this project involve the use of retrospective samples?
  • Does this project involve interaction with the Manitoba health care system (public) or its resources?
• Your application does not contain placeholder text (e.g., TBD).  All free text fields should have responses that relate to the question
• All research team members have created Harmony accounts, all Personal Profile Forms are complete, and the Personal Profile ID Number is referenced on the Research Team page.
• All uploaded documents have version dates that match the version date in the upload dialogue box
• Each document has a unique name – which will be reflected on the RITHIM Approval Certificate

The deadline for Harmony submissions is 4:30 p.m. on the stated date. We strongly encourage applicants to apply early to ensure your submission passes RITHIM Program Officer Review by the deadline so it can be included in the current monthly meeting cycle.

Finding your Application Status

To view where your application is in the Harmony review process, please visit your Harmony Work Area.
Expanding the project of interest in your list of projects will show you the application status.
This status will change as reviews are added or completed.

*New* Ticketing System

RITHIM has introduced a new ticketing system for all questions related to RITHIM reviews and the Harmony system.  If you require assistance, please go to RITHIM/Harmony Support to submit a ticket.

*New* Harmony Administrator Role

RITHIM has begun automatically assigning a Harmony Administrator Role to all projects.  This access to projects is Read Only for the purpose of providing technical support.  You may notice this role assigned in your list of Project Collaborators.