


AHRECS expands to encompass animal ethics
In this short post AHRECS consultant, Amanda Fernie discusses the animal ethics services that AHRECS now provides and are experienced in, in this complex and important area of research governance.
Amanda is one of the recent additions to the AHRECS team.
She brings considerable experience as someone who has worked as an animal ethics officer and as a manager of a Research Ethics and Research Integrity team.
Even more than is a case for Human Research Ethics, Animal Ethics is an area that cannot be purely approached as a matter of technical regulation where researchers and institutions must comply with relevant laws and ethical codes. This is NOT a useful approach to Animal Ethics. It also unlikely to prompt researchers to approach the topic in a way that it thoughtful, reflective and engaged.
Considering matters such as the sufficiency of environmental enrichment and techniques is not merely a matter of whether a proposed approach complies with the law. It requires a far more thoughtful reflection on animal welfare and respect. What was appropriate 20 years ago is unlikely to be acceptable now.
The AHRECS team brings together considerable experience and insight into international best practice.
Contact us on enquiry@ahrecs.com if you would like to discuss how we can assist your institution.

AHRECS and Animal Ethics
During 2021 and 2022, AHRECS has been compiling an animal ethics team and we were thrilled when Dr Amanda Fernie joined our team. She is both an experienced researcher, a very experienced animal ethics officer and a former manager of a research and research integrity team at a large Australian university.
In this post, she discusses the animal ethics services AHRECS now provides, as well as the support we have been providing and the contribution we are making in the animal ethics sphere.
This is an excellent discussion of the range of services that AHRECS provides
For example, AHRECS has considerable experience in the design and delivery of professional development in the animal ethics space.
If you are interested in engaging AHRECS for us to assist with your institution’s animal ethics needs, send an email to enquiry@ahrecs.com or alternatively you can contact Erich Von Dietze on erich.vondietze@ahrecs.com. Erich is the senior consultant who is leading our experienced animal ethics team.
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Constructive Voices Online Panels – National Statement session 22/11/2018 – Information for registrants
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What do HREC members think and do when deciding about children’s participation in social research? Results from the MESSI survey
In this guest post, Associate Professor Stephanie Taplin (UTS) reflects upon the reflections and attitudes of members of a research ethics committee when reviewing a project involving sensitive issues, where the participants are young people.
She reflects upon the degree that this consideration is based upon standards and expectations that are often not transparent to researchers and can be an impediment to useful/important research.
This post is based upon a longer research output that was about research exploring those attitudes.
This included whether there were topics that a research ethics committee member would never approve for a research project to explore with young people.
This work points to the need for specialist professional development for committee members relating to research on sensitive issues with young people.
This also raises the question of what guidance material institutions publish for researchers and for reference by research ethics reviewers.

Why university research ethics committees are vital
In this post Daniel Sokol writes about a troubling research integrity/human research ethics case that relates to Poland, the UK and Australia.
Daniel SokolÂ
When I sat on the Ministry of Defence’s Research Ethics Committee, some research projects were potentially dangerous. The risks of testing a new piece of military diving equipment, for example, are obvious. If it malfunctions, the volunteer could drown or suffer brain damage. The risks of historical research can be more subtle but they are nonetheless real, as shown by a recent case involving the University of Warwick.
Dr Anna Hájková, an associate professor of modern continental European history, researches the queer history of the Holocaust. She claimed that a Jewish prisoner may have engaged in a lesbian sexual relationship with a Nazi guard in Hamburg in 1944.
After the war, the prisoner worked as an actress and emigrated from…
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