These processes determine compliance to established ethical principles, code for responsible research conduct, institutional policies, state and national guidelines, relevant legislation and regulations.
Elements of research governance:
Research governance consists of two distinct processes relating to ethical review and institutional authorisation of research.
All research must be ethically reviewed and approved by a Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) in accordance with values and principles set out in the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (the National Statement 2023) and any revisions made to it. Depending on the risk type and sites involved, ethical approval can be obtained in either of the following ways:
Applicants are advised to discuss their project with the Research team (ethics@swh.net.au) prior to submission of application. For the detailed procedure refer to Application Submission Guide.
Site specific assessment (SSA) is conducted for all multi-site and single-site research projects. The SSA form available on Ethical review manager addresses the site-involvement, resources, funding, site-specific requirements based on local policies, indemnity, insurance and declarations from departments, etc.
It is the Principal Investigator’s responsibility to complete the application and obtain necessary signatures from Head of Department or supporting department. All research projects submitted to South West Healthcare HREC for ethics review will go through simultaneous governance review. For the detailed SSA information refer to SWH site specific assessment procedure in Application Submission Guide.
A project can only commence once you have received approval from following:
For studies to be conducted at SWH
For studies to be conducted at other regional Health services