Roles and responsibilities of Research Ethics Committees and Science Granting Councils

Entities such as RECs and SGCs play key roles in sustaining science and health research. By definition, these entities may often be agents of government or other stakeholders (Scholes et al., 2008). In the former case, they would represent the interests of a country’s elected leadership but might also take account of the interest of the country’s scientific community.

The roles of SGCs and RECs thus provide a unique opportunity for these organisations to develop policy, and assess, manage and enforce rules pertaining to research partnerships and the protection of researcher independence in health research, with the aim of ensuring research integrity and equity, and the reputability of the engaging partners (Silaigwana & Wassenaar ,2015)

Roles of RECs

RECs are responsible for ensuring that health research is conducted to the highest possible ethical standards. They will do that by:

  • Receiving proposal and subjecting them to ethical review before any approval
  • Making decisions as to whether to approve a proposal or not, or to recommend changes – all so as to improve the ethical quality of health research
  • Promoting awareness and facilitating capacity building for ethical research.

Responsibilities of SGCs

SGCs are often responsible for:

  • Making grants to researchers to conduct research
  • Developing policy for research in their country or region
  • Seeking out collaborations to build capacity for research
  • Approving research (in some jurisdictions)
  • Undertaking  capacity building for researchers and their institutions

RECs and SGCs need to have a good understanding to identify, prevent, mitigate and manage COI in these roles. If they do not, then some consequences can include:

  • Research of sub-optimal ethical standard
  • Research that is harmful to participants or communities
  • Research that generates false data for policy
  • Reputational harm for the institution