Erich von Dietze
The National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2018) expresses the need for members of Human Research Ethics Committees to be supported in their roles and to receive training or professional development appropriate to their role on the committee. While this ensures an expanding knowledge base, it can be expensive and poses difficulties for individual institutions to provide.
In response to this, Perth-based HRECs have gathered together annually since around 2007. In the early years, the workshops were offered to lay members of university HRECs, providing focused presentations and opportunities for networking. Members across different institutions’ HRECs had an opportunity to meet one another and share resources. Demand from other members and institutions has seen the workshops expand in range and ambition over time. We use feedback to build each year’s workshop so the series continues to meet the needs of attendees. Institutions share the hosting of the event and have significant input into the format and program.
Past events have included
Speakers addressed more technical areas such as data, privacy, emerging research methods, and legislative requirements. Discussion is not associated with any individual HREC or any particular ethics application, rather is more generic to HRECs as a group.
Friday 30 September 2022 – Human Ethics workshop
Interacting across boundaries: applying human research ethics in different situations.
The workshop is being hosted by the Research Office at Notre Dame University, Fremantle, in conjunction with AHRECS (Australasian Human Research Ethics Consultancy Services).
8.30am registration, 9.00am start, concluding after lunch.
Notre Dame Campus, Tannock Hall, Fremantle WA
Cost $170.00 per participant
The program includes:
Two HREC chairs will reflect on the demands of chairing an HREC, the process for achieving consensus and the many tasks for a chair which occur between meetings. The value for this discussion will be in raising awareness and opening a conversation about how the workloads of key members such as chairs can be managed more effectively.
Melanie Wright, Director of Research, South Metropolitan Health Service (SMHS), will address the layers of ethical and other considerations when research is undertaken across the boundaries, specifically in collaboration between universities and hospitals. She will provide an overview research activity in SMHS and talk about her personal and professional experiences of the similarities and differences between ethics processes in universities and in the health system. She will explore this examining what the SHHS looks for in an ethics application, the low-risk pathway, waivers of consent, and examine specific cases such as research involving incapacitated adults.
Prof. Margaret Jones will speak about the changing research landscape. In recent years publicity has been given to changes in technology and data that have impacted research and ethical considerations. A deeper changing landscape is emerging in respect of the kinds of research being funded, research governance, the drivers for collaboration, student research, publication, and policies driven through governments and institutions. These developments impact HRECs, require new skills to be developed among HREC members and raise challenges for ethics reviews.
A key component of the day is time allocated for discussion and dialogue both with the speakers and as conversation among the various HREC members over coffee and lunch.
Tickets are available to be purchased at https://www.trybooking.com/CATVG. Ticket price includes morning tea, lunch and GST.
This year in addition to attending the event in Fremantle, there is capacity to register attendees via Zoom to be able to participate in the presentations. The Zoom link will be open from 8.45am – 1.45pm (AWST). Sessions are planned to commence at 9.00am and conclude around 1.00pm, with a morning tea break in the middle. On request, a special discount code for Zoom-only registration can be provided – please contact er*************@****cs.com if this interest you. The online component is open to registrants outside Western Australia.
Please forward this information to any HREC staff of members who may be interested to participate.
Any queries regarding the event, or the registration process, please contact er*************@****cs.com. For queries regarding the location, please contact er*********@**.edu.
This post may be cited as:
von Dietze, E. (18 August 2022) AHRECS and Animal Ethics. Research Ethics Monthly. Retrieved from: https://ahrecs.com/2022-hrec-workshops/