Melbourne School of Population Health Human Ethics Advisory Group
For research involving humans that is conducted by staff and students within the school, an ethics application must be completed and submitted via THEMIS to the Melbourne School of Population Health, Human Ethics Advisory Group (HEAG).
The HEAG role is to conduct technical and ethical review on applications (and in some cases, approval) before they are submitted to one of the Human Ethics Sub-Committees (HESC).
The HEAG will be looking for; adherence to guidelines, clear aims, feasibility, good design, justification, significance, risks, and benefits.
In most cases, the HEAG makes a recommendation to the HESC (Human Ethic Sub-Committee), but the full proposal is subject to HESC review, and may only be approved by the HESC.
Approval Process
- Application is considered by HEAG. If recomended for approval,
- Application is considered by HESC. If approved,
- Investigators can begin research
Applications that must be submitted to the HESC (after being recommended for approval by the HEAG) include:
- Project application (the most commonly used application for research involving humans)
- Program applications (for use by Departments seeking ethical approval for a program of research encompassing multiple research projects)
- Major changes to already approved projects (amendments should be submitted initially to HEAG for endorsement, then forwarded to the relevant human ethics sub-committee for approval)
- Registering projects that have already received external ethics approval (If a project has received ethics approval from another institution, the HREC will register the project at University of Melbourne. These requests should be submitted initially to HEAG for endorsement)
In some cases, the University's HREC (Human Research Ethics Committee) has granted HEAG the authority to approve applications:
Approval Process
- Application is considered by HEAG. If approved,
- Investigators can begin research.
- HEAG will send copy of project to HREC for records.
Applications that can be approved by HEAG include:
- Minimal Risk (Research that is of low risk to participants and researchers may be approved via an minimal risk review process through the HEAG. In these cases HEAG gives final approval. These applications do not need to be submitted to the HREC for approval)
- Minor changes to applications already approved by the HEAG (HEAG can approve minor changes to projects, if the amendment is associated with a project previously approved by minimal risk review or as a project-within program and the amendment presents no additional risks)
- Project-within-Program applications (Once a Program Application has been approved by the HESC, the HEAG can then approve projects that fit within the Program Application)