Ethics

The responsible conduct of research at UCT is supported through university-wide and faculty-specific policies, senate-level committees, and faculty-level research ethics committees (RECs):

• The RECs take responsibility for the review and oversight of research projects that engage with research participants through interactions and/or interventions, and/or use individually identifiable data about living individuals.
• Their work is shaped by core principles of justice, beneficence, and respect for people.
• RECs typically require detailed protocol information relating to:
  • the reasonableness and minimisation of risks  
  • the balancing of risks and benefits associated with participation
  • assurance as to the equitable representation of persons, and
  • support for the voluntarism associated with ethics research.
• RECs also undertake special scrutiny of research that engages with vulnerable populations including, among others:
  • children
  • pregnant women and foetuses
  • prisoners
  • migrants, and
  • people who are cognitively impaired.
• Faculty-level animal ethics committees provide similar oversight for animal welfare and well-being in research projects ranging from laboratory research to wildlife-field studies.

Faculty-level research ethics committees (RECs)

Human subjects

• Faculty of Health Sciences
• Faculty of Commerce
• Faculty of Law
• Faculty of Science: contact REC Chair, Professor Timm Hoffman
• Centre for Higher Education and Development
• Engineering and the Built Environment
• Graduate School of Business

Animal ethics

• Faculty of Health Sciences
• Faculty of Science: contact AEC Chair, Arjun Amar