Research and Ethics Office

Ethical conduct of research activities involving human participants is governed by guidelines contained in legislation and policies. The primary purpose of these guidelines for the conduct of research activities involving human participants is to ensure the protection of the welfare and the rights of human participants.

The secondary purpose is to facilitate research that is, or will be, of benefit to the researcher's community or humankind. Barwon Health has established the Human Research Ethics Committee to administer these guidelines, to provide assistance to researchers in the consideration of ethical issues involved in research and to apply policy.

The Research and Ethics Office is involved in a number of activities including:

Providing information, support and guidance to researchers regarding research ethics
Providing the secretariat for Human Research Ethics Committee and the Research Review Committee
Providing administrative support for the Human Research Ethics Committee
Liaising between the Committees and applicants
Conducting a preliminary review of applications and providing feedback to applicants prior to submission of the application for ethics approval
Contributing to monitoring of all approved research projects
Developing, implementing, reviewing and updating policies and procedures relating to research ethics
Ensuring that the Committees and Barwon Health are compliant with relevant State and Federal legislation relating to the ethical conduct of research
Reporting to Barwon Health, the National Health and Medical Research Council, and other relevant organisations.