Research Ethics and Governance Our research ethics and governance team had a productive year in 2020, approving a total of 357 applications for research (141 ethics applications and 216 governance applications). This indicates a steady increase in research activity over the year and early trends in 2021 suggest that research at NSLHD continues to grow. However successful recruitment to a full team and a determined attitude led to significant improvements throughout the year, resulting in governance authorisations being under 15 days by mid-2020. Applications for COVID-19 research were reviewed with priority, and the team approved a total of 36 COVID-19 related projects. Twenty of these projects being conducted
across NSLHD remained active at the end of 2020. In 2020, the research ethics and governance team started regular communiques with researchers via email, webinars and in-service events, and contributed to a district research newsletter in an effort to build strong working relationships with key stakeholders. The year concluded on a high note with the Ministry of Health describing the ethics team as a “consistently strong performer throughout 2020” and commending the governance team for its “remarkable improvement” through the year.
The Ministry of Health key performance indicator (KPI) for ethics approval (45 days) was achieved for the whole of 2020. The KPI for governance authorisation (15 days) was negatively impacted in quarter one by staff turnover in 2019, which resulted in governance officers starting 2020 with a backlog.
HUMAN RESEARCH ETHICS COMMITTEE (average days to approval)
GOVERNANCE Average Metric Time (Days)
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RESEARCH ANNUAL REPORT 2020
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