Animal research ethics

All research on animals conducted on Curtin campuses or by Curtin students or staff must be approved by the Curtin Animal Ethics Committee before it can commence. Non-compliance with this requirement represents research misconduct, which will be investigated.

An animal is defined as ‘any live non-human vertebrate (that is, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, encompassing domestic animals, purpose-bred animals, livestock, wildlife) and cephalopods’.

Research MUST comply with the Australian Code for the Care and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes 8th Edition (2014).

Encapsulated in the Code is the need to consider the 3Rs (Russell and Burch 1959) in teaching and research:

• The replacement of animals with other methods
• The reduction in the number of animals used by good experimental design and use of statistics.
• The refinement of techniques used to reduce adverse impact.

Applying for animal research ethics approval

Before applying for approval, you must complete the SOL Research Integrity Professional Development Program. Students can access this via Blackboard, and staff can access this via iPerform.

Application process

Animal research is divided into three categories:

Application deadlines

Log on to InfoEd where AEC meeting dates and applications deadlines can be found under the help tab. If you can’t access InfoEd email infoed@curtin.edu.au for support.

Maintaining your animal research ethics approval

Animal ethics forms and procedures