Human Ethics Resources
MANDATORY APPLICATION DOCUMENTS
All human research ethics applications must contain an Application Form and a Risk Assessment Checklist. On most occasions you will also need to provide additional documents.
For your convenience, a short-cut for access to the mandatory application and risk assessment documents is provided below.
Punctual submission of an annual Milestone Report is a required obligation of conducting human research.
Annual Milestone reports
Compliance with project monitoring requirements is a condition of approval.
The National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research requires institutions to monitor research projects involving human participants to ensure that they are conducted ethically and in compliance with the ethics approval for that project, including any conditions placed on that approval.
Therefore, whilst the maximum duration of ethics approval for a human research project at UWA is 5 years, at all times and for all projects, continuation of ethics approval is subject to the demonstration of satisfactory progress and compliance with ethics requirements.
Your responsibilities
To demonstrate satisfactory compliance with ethics requirements, the University requires all Chief Investigators responsible for human research projects to submit an annual Milestone Report, at least annually. More frequent project reporting requirements may be imposed for projects involving higher levels of risk, or where the project duration is likely to be less than one year.
It is a condition of your ethics approval that you submit a satisfactory annual Milestone Report by the due date that will be notified to you by the HREO.
Important reporting information
In completing an annual Milestone Report on your research, you will need to provide sufficient information and explanation about the project to demonstrate satisfactory progress and effective management of all ethics issues.The Chief Investigator will need to ensure that all relevant information is concisely provided in the annual Milestone Report, including information about:
- Amendments to the research design that may have occurred since the last annual Milestone Report was submitted – all project changes must be reviewed and approved by the HREO before they can be implemented.
- Whether an extension of the ethics approval period is required to permit completion of the project.
- Whether anything has occurred during the reporting period that may impact on the ethics approval for the project – all such matters should also be reported at the time they occurred.
- Any unexpected or adverse events of implications for research participants – all such matters should also be reported at the time they occurred.
- Any other matter of relevance to the progress of the research project.
In addition, if the research project is discontinued before the expected date of completion, researchers should inform the HREO as soon as possible, providing an explanation of the circumstances.
The annual Milestone Report that you will be required to complete contains all relevant questions that you need to answer and space for you to provide a brief report on your research progress.
Procedure
The HREO will forward a request for an annual Milestone Report to the Chief Investigator prior to the due date, which is based on the original ethics approval date for each project.
For convenience, the annual Milestone Report may be completed by any member of the research team. However, before submission of the annual Milestone Report to the HREO, it must be checked and signed by the Chief Investigator, who takes responsibility for all information contained in the report.
Failure to submit an annual Milestone Report by the due date may result in your ethics approval being suspended, or cancelled. If ethics approval is withdrawn, a researcher must immediately stop all research activities.
Annual Milestone Report submission
Annual Milestone reports are now submitted via ROAP, over the Internet.
University information
CRICOS Code: 00126G
