Human research ethics
Human research is conducted with or about people, or their data or tissue. This research must comply with the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Research 2007 (updated 2018).
All research on humans conducted on Curtin campuses or by Curtin students or staff must be approved by the Curtin Human Research Ethics Committee before it can commence.
Research can only be conducted within the approved timelines, so if your approval has expired you cannot continue with your research. Non-compliance with these requirements represents research misconduct which will be investigated.
Applying for human 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.
Maintaining your human research ethics approval
To comply with your ethics approval and ensure ongoing approval of a research study, all existing applicants must submit annual reports, then a completion report when the research has finished.
Log into InfoEd to submit annual and completion reports, make changes to the project (through an amendment request) and submit information on reportable events.
Reportable events
A reportable event is any event that must be reported to the Curtin Ethics Office. Reportable events may include protocol deviations, serious adverse event or an unanticipated problem.
Amendments
If your study has changed in any way you must submit an amendment request. Amendments to the protocol must not be acted on until approval has been given by the Human Research Office.
Protocol amendments may be defined as major or minor.
Clinical trials
Curtin uses the WHO / ICMJE 2008 definition of a clinical trial. That is, any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health related interventions to evaluate the effects on health outcomes.
For assistance in designing and conducting clinical trials please contact ROC-clinicaltrials@curtin.edu.au or +61 8 9266 9292.
Training and guides for human research ethics
Guides
If you need assistance with these guides or human research ethics please email your faculty officer down below.
The Human Research Ethics Committee and faculty officers
Human Research Ethics Committee
The Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) is constituted and operates in accordance with the National Health and Medical Research Council National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2007) including all updates.
Contact the Ethics team
The Human Research Ethics Office is responsible for managing and facilitating the ethical review process for research involving humans.
Contact us on ROC-ethics@curtin.edu.au for general enquiries or HREC@curtin.edu.au or phone 9266 9223.