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Ethics and Governance Overview

Ensuring research involving people follows ethical standards

BDHP is committed to the highest standards of research ethics and integrity.  Human Research Ethics Committees (HRECs) review research applications to make sure the research treats people ethically. This means treating them with respect, dignity and care and that the outcomes of the research is of benefit.

Most of our Partners have Human Research Ethics Committees (HRECs) that review research proposals involving humans to ensure that they meet ethical standards and guidelines. The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) certifies HRECs for specific types of research, ranging from clinical trials to paediatric research.

Within the BDHP partnership, six HRECs are NHMRC-certified for the National Mutual Acceptance Scheme (NMA). This scheme supports a single scientific and ethical review for multi-centre human research. This means that one HREC can review a research proposal for multiple sites. However, there may be some exceptions, e.g. for research at private hospitals.

Here is a current list of BDHP Partners and the type of research they are certified for.

HRECs meet on set dates throughout the year to consider research proposals. You can find a list of Queensland Health HREC information and meeting dates here. For dates of other BDHP Partners HREC meetings please see the links below.

Human Research Ethics Committees

The following HRECs within the BDHP partnership have been certified by the NHMRC for the following types of research.

Metro North HHS

Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital HREC

Research Types

  • Clinical trials phase I, II, III, IV
  • Clinical interventional research other than clinical trials
  • Population health and/or public health
  • Qualitative research
  • Mental health
  • Other health and medical research
    • Health services
    • Molecular biology

The Prince Charles Hospital HREC

Research Types

  • Clinical trials phase I, II, III, IV
  • Clinical interventional research other than clinical trials
  • Population health and/or public health
  • Qualitative research
  • Mental health
  • Other health and medical research
    • Health services
    • Molecular biology

Metro South HHS

HREC

Research types

  • Clinical trials phase I, II, III, IV
  • Clinical trials drugs and devices
  • Clinical trials surgery
  • Clinical trials other
  • Clinical interventional research other than clinical trials
  • Population health and/or public health
  • Qualitative research
  • Mental health
  • Paediatric research
  • Other health and medical research
    • Allied health research
    • Drug and alcohol research
    • Health science
    • Nutrition and dietetics

Children's Health Queensland HHS

HREC

Research types

  • Paediatric clinical trials phase I, II, III, IV
  • Paediatric clinical trials drugs and devices
  • Paediatric clinical interventional research other than clinical trials
  • Paediatric population health and/or public health
  • Paediatric qualitative research
  • Paediatric mental health
  • Paediatric justice health
  • Other health and medical research
    • Paediatric research with adult component

QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute

HREC

Research types

  • Clinical trials phase I, II, III, IV
  • Clinical interventional research other than clinical trials
  • Population health and/or public health
  • Qualitative research
  • Mental health
  • Other health and medical research
    • Laboratory research using human tissue samples

Mater Research

HREC

Research types

  • Clinical trials phase 0, I, II, III, IV
  • Clinical trials drugs and devices
  • Clinical interventional studies other than clinical trials
  • Population health and/or public health
  • Qualitative research
  • Mental health
  • Paediatric research

The following HRECs within the BDHP partnership have been registered with the NHMRC

The University of Queensland

HREC

Queensland University of Technology

HREC

Research Governance

Research governance is the process we use to ensure a research project or processes (such as training) meets the highest standards. It includes the safety and quality of research, financial, legal and regulatory matters, and ethical approval.

All BDHP partners are accountable for the research conducted under their auspices and have research governance offices responsible for the oversight of research projects.

If you want to conduct a research project at a BDHP partner organisation, we recommend you contact their research ethics and governance office. If you’re not sure where to get started, contact us.

HRECs and Research Governance Office details for BDHP partners

Metro North HHS

Metro South HHS

Children’s Health Queensland HHS

West Moreton HHS (single-site only)

QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute

Mater Research

The University of Queensland*

Queensland University of Technology*

*Please note the University of Queensland and Queensland University of Technology are registered with (not certified by) the NHMRC. As the NHMRC-certified HRECs do not accept the NMA, we advise you seek their HREC’s approval first (i.e. before UQ or QUT).

Our Partners