SA Health Single Ethical Review Model

The SA Health Single Ethical Review Model promotes greater efficiency in ethical review across the South Australian public health system. The model allows a single (once only) ethical and scientific review for all research taking place over multiple sites within the South Australian public health system.

How this works

Flowchart for SA Health ethics applications risk pathways (PDF32KB)

Greater than low risk ethics approval

In the single model, one of the four SA public health system Human Research Ethics Committees (HRECs) will undertake the ethical and scientific review of the research proposal as the ‘lead’ HREC. All other SA Health sites participating in the research will accept the outcomes of the review of the lead HREC without further ethical or scientific consideration.

Site specific assessment

When conducting research at any SA Health site, you must also submit a separate site specific assessment (SSA) to each institution/site where the research is to be conducted. This enables the institution/site to check that all research governance considerations are met.

Greater than low risk ethics applications and site specific assessments must be submitted via the Research GEMS portal, and can be submitted concurrently.

Low or negligible risk ethics applications

Research that is deemed low or negligible risk as per the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2007, updated 2018) can also be reviewed under the single ethical review model. The application procedure differs for each research office, and may be external to Research GEMS. Review the Flowchart for SA Health ethics applications risk pathways (PDF 31KB) and contact the relevant research office before commencing the application.

State-wide Human Research Ethics Committees

There are currently 23 NHMRC registered Human Research and Ethics Committees in South Australia. Four of these committees are within the public health sector.

For information regarding the committees in South Australia, please refer to the National Health and Medical Research Council (PDF 370KB) website.

Further information

Further information on this model can be found in the SA Health Research Ethics and Governance Policy (PDF 214KB).