SEH College Human Ethics Advisory Networks (CHEAN)

The College of Science Engineering & Health Human Ethics Advisory Network (CHEAN) is accountable to the RMIT University Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) which reports to the National Health and Medical Research Council (NH&MRC) through the Australian Health Ethics Committee (AHEC)

The SEH College CHEAN meetings are usually scheduled for the second and fourth Wednesday of each month commencing in March:

View the 2013 meeting schedule.

*Please note: There is only one meeting in December.

SEH researchers, including students, planning to do research with people, their information or their tissue must have ethics approval.

Ethics approval is required for a wide variety of research which may involve students, staff or the general public and includes but is not restricted to such things as; conducting surveys, questionnaires, interviews/focus groups, taking photographs, observing people or the use of a database of previously collected personal information.

Visit the Human Ethics website to find out if you need ethics approval.

The Ethics Forms are now online, interactive and designed to be filled in and submitted electronically. The forms are condensed, meaning that the level of detail and length of the forms are directly related to the complexity of the proposed research project. The risk assessment and checklist is now at the start of the application form and once completed will take you directly to the application form, either the CHEAN low risk application or the University HREC more than low risk application.

The CHEAN review and approve the following applications: ‘Exempt from review’ and ‘Negligible and Low Risk’ applications.

The CHEAN also review and approve extensions and amendments to existing CHEAN approved applications.

Extension and amendment requests must be made prior to the approval expiry date.

RMIT University HREC review and approve all ‘More than Low risk’ applications.

Forms

For the Checklist, Application Forms, Participant Information Statement and Consent templates please go to the ‘How to Apply’ section on the Human Research Ethics website

When submitting an application to the SEH CHEAN please make sure you download the most current RMIT ‘approved’ application form for each application, this will ensure that it is an up-to-date version of the form, as forms are constantly updated and amended without notice.

Multi-site applications

For applications that have been submitted and approved by another HREC please submit the final approved copy of the application together with any associated documents including copies of the other HREC’s approval letters.

The CHEAN will assess and if appropriate endorse the other approved HREC application providing the other HREC is a fully constituted committee in line with the National Statement.

Lodgement

Meeting dates and submission deadlines are listed in the table below: Follow the instructions on the ‘How to Apply’ section.

Approval

Please ensure that you allow sufficient time for the approval process as depending on the completeness and quality of an application it can take up to 2 months before ethics approval is received, and until ethics approval is received data collection involving humans cannot commence.

Each application is reviewed and assessed by the CHEAN before approval. Applications are dealt with on an individual basis and applicants are assigned a CHEAN mentor who provides feedback to facilitate approval in a timely manner. Therefore it is strongly advised that you apply well before the proposed starting date for your research as the CHEAN is unable to approve any application retrospectively. This is particularly important where research projects involve short or rigid timelines, for example: projects tied to semester dates, Honours projects and projects of students with visa restrictions.

Contacts

Secretary - Julie Barnett
Building 202 Level 4 Room 72 Bundoora West
Ph: +61 3 9925 7096
Email: SEH-Human-Ethics@ems.rmit.edu.au or julie.barnett@rmit.edu.au

Science Engineering & Health CHEAN Network

Chair - Linda Jones
School of Health Sciences

Meeting dates and application submission deadline

CHEAN A

Meeting number

Meeting date

Submission deadline

01-13 March

13/03/13

4/03/13

02-13 April

10/04/13

01/04/13

03-13 May

08/05/13

29/04/13

04-13 June

12/06/13

03/06/12

05-13 July

10/07/13

01/07/13

06-13 August

14/08/13

05/08/13

07-13 September

11/09/13

02/09/13

08-13 October

09/10/13

30/09/13

09-13 November

13/11/13

04/11/13

10-13* December

11/12/13 To be confirmed

02/12/13

CHEAN B

Meeting number

Meeting date

Submission deadline

01-13 March

27/03/13

18/03/13

02-13 April

24/04/13

15/04/13

03-13 May

22/05/13

13/05/13

04-13 June

26/06/13

17/06/13

05-13 July

24/07/13

15/07/13

06-13 August

28/08/13

19/08/13

07-13 September

25/09/13

16/09/13

08-13 October

23/10/13

14/10/13

09-13 November

27/11/13

18/11/13

10-13* December

11/12/13 To be confirmed

02/12/13

* Please note there is only one meeting scheduled for December.