Information for ethics committee members

New members of the Central University Research Ethics Committee and the University's divisional and departmental research ethics committees are expected to familiarise themselves with the following related University policies and guidance. Existing members should revisit and review these documents periodically, to ensure that their knowledge remains up-to-date.

It is strongly recommended that new committee members take the online introductory training module in research involving human participants.

Further information about how the University promotes and supports research ethics and integrity more broadly is available on the research integrity pages.

The Social Sciences and Humanities Interdivisional Research Ethics Committee (SSH IDREC) runs termly networking meetings for departmental research ethics committees, which other ethics committee members are welcome to attend. For information about future meetings, contact ethics@socsci.ox.ac.uk.

External committee members – expressions of interest

Volunteer external members (ie those with no formal affiliation to the University of Oxford and who are not involved in research elsewhere) serve on the University’s human research ethics committees.

The interdivisional research ethics committees (IDRECs) for Medical Sciences and Social Sciences and Humanities each have a minimum of three external members. The Oxford Tropical Research Ethics Committee (OxTREC) has four external members. These committees provide ethical review of research involving human participants, human tissue and/or personal data.

Two external members serve on the Central University Research Ethics Committee, which has responsibility for implementing the University policy on the ethical conduct of research involving human participants, human tissue and personal data.  

All of these committees meet at least three times a year in Oxford (OxTREC meets six times a year) and review matters by correspondence between meetings.

If you are interested in receiving information about future vacancies, please email the Secretary of the Central University Research Ethics Committee (curec@admin.ox.ac.uk).

Please note that there is only a modest budget for the expenses of external members attending meetings therefore members must live within reasonable travel distance from Oxford.