Project-based innovation and entrepreneurship curricula encourage learners to approach challenges in an agile, iterative way, allowing for flexibility to respond to new information throughout the research and idea development process. This approach often clashes with traditional ethical approval processes designed for a more predictable set of research methods. This account of practice explores the tensions thus arising and asks how the ethics review process might better support the development of future ethical, responsible innovators? Three key insights related to the importance of balance, language and shared understanding are introduced and presented as part of a pilot project.