Interagency Advisory Panel on Research Ethics (PRE)

Meeting Highlights - January 2002

• PRE addressed several corporate matters for future meetings:
  • Guidelines for confidentiality and conflict of interest were reviewed. A clause regarding PRE's consultative and transparent nature will be added to allow PRE members to share documents with non-members as required.
  • PRE approved a Policy on Agency invitees. A complete policy on the attendance of observers, invitees, and guests will be developed.
  • A quorum of seven, with appropriate expertise in the subject matter, is required for decision-making.
    
    
• Evaluation Framework: PRE and the Agencies (CIHR, SSHRC, and NSERC) will adopt the Government of Canada's Results-Based Management and Accountability Framework to define a framework for evaluating the work of PRE and the Secretariat on Research Ethics (SRE).
  
  
• Communications: It was agreed that a PRE Communication plan will be developed for PRE.
  
  
• Task Group on Implementation: The task group will explore the feasibility and development of consultative visits to TCPS (Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans) user institutions to better understand implementation of the TCPS. The task group and PRE welcomed a new federal policy that will allow university institutions to allocate new funds to indirect costs of research; they might be applied to research ethics and administration of the TCPS.
  
  
• Task Group on Evolution: PRE will attend the following meetings to dialogue with the community on the TCPS and PRE's initial work plan:
  • National Placebo Working Committee, March 2002
  • The Qualitative Analysis Conference, May 2002
  • The Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities, May 2002
    
    
  The task group will develop a process and criteria for prioritizing updates to the TCPS. Forthcoming projects include: (i) an analysis of recommendations pertaining to the TCPS in the Canadian Association of University Teachers' Olivieri Report; and, (ii) an independent assessment of the needs of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council researchers whose research involves humans.
  
  
• Task Group on Interpretation: The task group will compile and analyze previous queries and responses regarding the TCPS since the creation of the policy, and will continue to refine procedures for responding to TCPS interpretation questions.
  
  
• Task Group on Education: The group will explore the need for, and feasibility of, developing an on-line educational tutorial on the TCPS.
  
  
• Governance Dialogue: PRE's draft position paper, Process and Principles for Developing a Canadian Governance System for the Ethical Conduct of Research Involving Humans, was discussed and recommended for distribution to the Presidents of CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC for their review.
  
  
• Health Canada provided a status report on its consultations to develop a national governance system for research involving humans.