AIHW Ethics Committee

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Ethics Committee is established under section 16(1) of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Act 1987. The Committee is required to advise on the ethical acceptability of AIHW activities involving information which can identify a person ('identifiable data'). The Ethics Committee considers applications:

by AIHW units and collaborating units to commence new collections of unit record data or to change the scope of content of existing collections;
by AIHW units and collaborating units to link datasets for the purposes of analysis; and
by external researchers for access to identifiable data held by the AIHW which they wish to link with their research data.

Refer to the AIHW Ethics Committee background and practice document for further information on the AIHW Ethics Committee.

2010 Meeting dates

The Ethics Committee generally meets once a quarter.

To enable the Ethics Committee to give effective consideration to all proposals following are the deadlines for papers to be received at the Institute are set out below. Late papers will not be considered but will be held over until the next scheduled meeting.

    1^st quarter meeting: 2 March (papers due by 2 February)
    2^nd quarter meeting: 1 June (papers due by 4 May)
    3^rd quarter meeting: 31 August (papers due by 3 August)
    4^th quarter meeting: 16 November (papers due by 19 October)

Please note that any of these dates are subject to change and deadlines should be checked with the Institute prior to submissions being forwarded.

Ethics Committee application forms

Please refer to the checklist for further information on the application process and relevant documents including submission guidelines.

AIHW Ethics Committee Application Form

The AIHW Ethics Committee Application Form - AIHW staff (including members of collaborating units undertaking work as part of the AIHW work program)
- This application form is suitable for applications from within the AIHW (including collaborating units)
The AIHW Ethics Committee Application Form - Researchers external to the AIHW
- This application form is suitable for applications from external researchers for one centre research studies seeking linkage with the National Death Index

National Ethics Application Form (NEAF)

The National Ethics Application Form
The NEAF is to be used by external researchers involved in multi centre studies.
NEAF is a dynamic tool designed to assist researchers to complete proposals for submission to a Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) and to assist HRECs to consistently and efficiently evaluate the proposal. For further information on the NEAF please refer to the Quick reference map.
Researchers using the NEAF will be required to submit a hard copy of their application along with a signed AIHW Undertaking.

Modification to previous AIHW Ethics Committee approvals

You may not require a full application but you will require approval from the Committee. Please contact the data custodian or secretariat for further advice.

Contact Details

Contact the secretariat for further information:

Email:
Phone:	02 6244 1123
Fax:	02 6244 1111
Postal Address:	Executive Unit AIHW GPO Box 570 Canberra ACT 2601