Any research conducted with or about people must have ethics approval before it can begin.

The University of Newcastle’s Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) is responsible for ensuring we have effective processes in place to review the ethical acceptability of human research proposals and ensure approved projects are compliant with regulatory and legislative requirements.

The Committee and the University expect that any researcher or student conducting research that involves humans:

  • is familiar with details in the National Statement on ethical conduct in Human research
  • is familiar with national and university policies and procedures that concern human research activity
  • ensures their research is supported by methods that are academically, professionally and ethically sound
  • only starts human research activity after ethics approval has been expressly issued
  • ensures their research activities are fully compliant with the terms of their ethics approval
  • applies for approval of any proposed amendments before those changes are actioned
  • at a minimum, reports annually on any approved human research activity.