Ethics and Regulatory

There are two types of accredited ethics committees that conduct ethical review of the applications received by the HRC - Health and Disability Ethics Committees (HDECs) and Institutional Ethics Committees (IECs).

Applications to HDECs should be made to the appropriate committee in the region in which the research is to be carried out.

Where research is to be carried out in more than one region, an application should be made to the Multi-region Ethics Committee (MREC). As a general guide, research originating in a tertiary educational institution will normally be reviewed by an ethics committee of that institution (an IEC), if that committee is accredited by the HRCEC to review HRC funding applications. However, particular types of research proposals received by an IEC may be referred to an HDEC. A research proposal which involves both human and animal subjects will require separate approvals from both human and animal ethics committees.
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