ACU is committed to the highest standards of ethical research, through promotion of the values outlined in the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2023), including Research Merit and Integrity, Justice, Beneficence and Respect.

Ethical clearance by the Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) must be sought and approved for all students and staff who intend to conduct and publish research with human participants or their data. This applies to:

• funded and unfunded research.
• research activities undertaken as a major requirement towards your degree.
• Honours projects. 

This could include research that involves the following activities as outlined in the National Statement:

• taking part in surveys, interviews or focus groups;
• undergoing psychological, physiological or medical testing or treatment;
• being observed by researchers;
• researchers having access to their personal documents or other materials;
• the collection and use of body organs, tissues or fluids (eg skin, blood, urine, saliva, hair, bones, tumour and other biopsy specimens) or their exhaled breath;
• access to information (in individually identifiable, re-identifiable or nonidentifiable form) as part of an existing published or unpublished source or database e.g. from documents, medical records, databases, social media or websites etc)

You DO NOT need to apply for ethics approval if:

• You are conducting Quality Assurance (QA) activities, such as a satisfaction survey, and you do not intend to publish the results. Refer to the NHMRC Ethical considerations in quality assurance and evaluation activities for guidance.
• You are using research methods such as surveys or interviews on classmates as part of your class activity or assessment. Refer to Taught Unit Guidelines and some Frequently Asked Questions which include a short video.
• Your research does not involve human participants or their data.

If the project has approval from an external NHMRC registered Australian HREC and ALL components of the project have ethics approval, projects can be registered by an expedited process at ACU via Orion. Projects can only be registered when the ACU staff member and/or student are listed on the external approval and/or application form.

Attach all documentation that was approved by the External HREC, including a copy of the approved application, together with relevant information such as your approval letter, participant information documents and any subsequent modifications or progress reports. We require evidence that the ACU personnel are named on the original (external) approval documents, including students. We will accept a modification with these changes. In most cases, ACU HREC will accept the approval of the Primary (External) HREC up until the original end date.

You may be asked to make changes, such as the participant information material, to meet ACU requirements. We also require you to upload any amendments that may have already been approved by the external HREC. If you are an ACU staff member and registering as a student from another university, and plan on recruiting ACU’s staff or students, you will also need to detail your recruitment strategy and ensure any conflict of interest has been declared.

The approving institution will remain the responsible external HREC. Even though the approving HREC will remain responsible for the research, the researcher will need to register the details of the approval with ACU. The ACU HREC must also be informed if the approving HREC approves a modification, cancels, suspends or withdraws the approval and must be notified if unexpected adverse events, complaints or grievances are raised. You are also required to provide copies and acknowledgements of Annual Reviews and Final Reports from the external HREC.

Overseas Research

ACU HREC reserves the right not to accept an External HREC's approval, in which case we will ask you to submit a New ACU Project form for full review. If your project has been reviewed by an international ethics committee, your project will be considered for registration on a case-by-case basis. However, If you intend to recruit Australian participants, you will need to complete a new ACU application, and be reviewed by ACU’s NHMRC registered HREC, to ensure your project complies with Australian ethical standards.

Please reach out to res.ethics@acu.edu.au to seek specific information relevant to your project. Please ensure to include the Research Proposal, the original application form, the ethics approval form and Participant Information Letters and Consent forms.

The risk profile of research applications determines the review process each application will be allocated to, and the associated timeframes for submission and review.

Only higher risk research and Honours projects reviewed by the School Approval Process (SAP) in the Faculty of Health Sciences, have submission deadlines and specific meeting dates. All other applications will be reviewed out of session, and have no submission deadlines. 

It is recommended you submit your application at least eight weeks before you intend starting your data collection to allow for the review process to be completed, as data collection cannot commence until the application has been approved.

Please see the risk profiles to determine which review process is suitable for your specific research project and the associated timeframes for submission and review. 

You should not commence your research until you have obtained ethics clearance from the ACU HREC. The HREC cannot grant retrospective approval and ethics approval must be sought prior to any research activity beyond scoping. 

If ACU HREC is the only Ethics Committee involved in the approval of your protocol, you can commence contacting potential participants from the date indicated in the email you receive confirming the approval of the proposed protocol.

Be aware that the decision and authority to commence collecting data may be dependent on factors beyond the control of the ACU ethics review process.

If your research requires ethics clearance or permissions from other organisations, data collection should not commence until you have also satisfied their requirements.

The risk profile of research applications determines the review process each application will be allocated to, and the associated timeframes for submission and review.

Please see the risk profiles to determine which review process is suitable for your specific research project.