The Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) is a key ethics review body within the University of Western Australia’s ethics review and approval system.
The HREC is registered with the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and is a formally constituted committee of the University with a membership comprising highly experienced research staff and lay members
The University of Western Australia is required to ensure that all research involving human participants has been reviewed by an appropriate ethics review body and determined to be ethically satisfactory before research commences. The Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) is a key ethics review body that determines the ethical suitability of higher risk research proposals.
The Human Research Ethics Committee is a Vice Chancellor's Advisory Committee that is responsible to the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research).
The HREC is established to assist the University of Western Australia in addressing its responsibilities to protect all parties involved in human research including research participants, researchers, and the Institution in accordance with the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research.
The National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research is jointly promulgated by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Australia Research Council (ARC), and Universities Australia (UA) and The University of Western Australia is bound by its guidelines and requirements.
The principal functions of the HREC are to:
The members of the HREC are experienced, senior researchers and community members with a broad expertise in research design and research ethics.
The minimum membership of the committee must satisfy the requirements of the “National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research”.
(Refer to paragraphs 5.1.29 and 5.1.30 of the National Statement.
The HREC is a formally constituted committee of the University and is registered with the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia.
The committee’s Constitution is available here.
In addition to being bound by its own Constitution, the HREC and its members also operate in accordance with the:
The ethics review of ‘higher risk’ and/or more complex human research ethics proposals takes time. Therefore, applications need to be received 2 weeks prior to a scheduled HREC to be included in the agenda. After quality check, applications are submitted to the next available meeting for review.
Remember, that you should always submit your human research ethics application documents as soon as they are ready, because not all ethics applications need to be reviewed by the HREC, quality reviews can take time and there is a maximum number of applications that can be placed on an HREC agenda.
For application that will need to be reviewed by the HREC, the following is the meeting schedule for 2021.
The Human Ethics office recommends to submit applications using the online system. Using your pheme login.
Red Committee Meeting Date |
Yellow Committee Meeting Date |
No Meeting January |
Wed, 19 January 2022 |
Tue, 1 February 2022 |
Wed, 16 February 2022 |
Tue, 1 March 2022 |
Wed, 16 March 2022 |
Tue, 5 April 2022 |
Wed, 20 April 2022 |
Tue, 3 May 2022 |
Wed, 18 May 2022 |
Tue, 7 June 2022 |
Wed, 15 June 2022 |
Tue, 5 July 2022 |
Wed, 20 July 2022 |
Tue, 2 August 2022 |
Wed, 17 August 2022 |
Tue, 6 September 2022 |
Wed, 14 September 2022 |
Tue, 4 October 2022 |
Wed, 19 October 2022 |
Tue, 6 December 2022 |
Wed, 16 November 2022 |
No Meeting December |