Evaluation and Monitoring

Making a submission for a human research proposal

This page provides an application form and information on how to submit a human research proposal to the Departmental Ethics Committee (DEC) for review.

The following Application Form has been designed to specifically meet the purposes of the DEC. Please complete all fields of the Application Form and indicate if a section does not apply to your research with n/a.

Application form (RTF 734 KB)

Application form (PDF 275 KB)

Background material is to be limited to essential information. This information will assist the DEC in determining issues of beneficence, burden to subject participants, justice and equity. The DEC does not want duplication of material used for project funding purposes. Only provide information that is pertinent to the research.

The DEC requires copies of all material relevant to the proposed research eg survey tools or questionnaires, discussion outlines/question lists for all interviews, focus groups where applicable, consent forms, patient information documentation etc. All participant information is to be conveyed in plain English that is easily understood by a young adult.

Examples of the consent forms and plain language statement can be located at Attachment B of the application form.

The DEC also accepts research applications using the NHMRC National Ethics Application Form (NEAF), a copy of which can be located at the following website address: https://www.neaf.gov.au/default.aspx

Consideration of your project

The DEC Secretariat will contact you approximately ten working days after the meeting with the consideration of your project. The DEC may require further clarification on the research methodology, modifications or additional information and in some cases a face to face meeting or teleconference with the Senior Researcher. This part of the process, for the majority of research applications, will be conducted out of session.

Applicants are required to submit one electronic copy of their application to ethics@health.gov.au, including scanned copies of the signature pages, by the closing date for submissions.

Original signature pages must be forwarded to the DEC Secretariat at:

The Secretariat
Departmental Ethics Committee
MDP 132
GPO Box 9848
CANBERRA ACT 2601