In 1996, the NSW Aboriginal Health Resources Cooperative, later known as the Aboriginal Health & Medical Research Council (AH&MRC), established the AH&MRC Human Research Ethics Committee (Ethics Committee) to embed ethical research principals and better outcomes for Aboriginal people and their communities. Prior to the creation of the committee, many health and medical research projects involving Aboriginal people were deemed to be invasive, inappropriate, unnecessary, and undertaken without consultation or approval by Aboriginal people and communities.
For biographies of current Ethics Committee, including their positions and experience, click here.
The Ethics Committee
The Ethics Committee membership consists of a diverse mix of Aboriginal health and legal professionals, community members, and medical doctors who each bring their varied expertise and experiences in Aboriginal health and research. The membership has a unique capacity to assess the involvement of Aboriginal communities for a research project, the capacity of researchers to work ethically with Aboriginal people and communities and the validity and usefulness of the research. The membership offers an in-depth understanding of the principals outlined in the Guidelines through their knowledge, professional and lived experience.
Interested in joining the ethics committee? Click here.
The Ethics Team at AH&MRC
The AH&MRC Ethics Team is responsible for providing the secretariat support to the Ethics Committee and handling all research applications, enquiries, projects, content development and resources related to research ethics at the AH&MRC.
The Ethics Team is guided by the feedback and consultation of the Ethics Committee. Our Team works closely with the Ethics Committee to ensure that research that affects Aboriginal people and communities in NSW is ethically sound and developed in a culturally appropriate way.
