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 de f inition 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.

View the Constitution and committee members here.

Contact the Ethics team

The Human Research Ethics Office is responsible for managing and facilitating the ethical review process for research involving humans.