Ethics at CIHR
CIHR is mandated by Parliament through the CIHR Act to:
- Promote, assist and undertake research that meets the highest international scientific standards of excellence and ethics.
- Foster the discussion of ethical issues and the application of ethical principles to health research.
- Monitor, analyze and evaluate issues, including ethical issues, pertaining to health and health research.
The CIHR Strategic Plan 2021-2031 champions foundational ethical principles and values through its commitment to promote health research that is inclusive, collaborative, transparent, culturally safe and focused on real world impact, and leading to equitable health outcomes. The Strategic Plan Priorities are underpinned by the ethical imperatives of:
- "Respect for people" that upholds the dignity and contributions of all, while actively opposing discrimination in all its forms; and
- "Integrity and accountability" that systematically embeds the consideration of ethical issues and the application of ethical principles into CIHR's business.
What we do
Various health research ethics-related activities and issues at CIHR are led by or coordinated by the Ethics Office, including:
- Advancing policy-driven ethics activities related to health research;
- Providing ethics content, analysis, guidance and advice across CIHR;
- Advancing discussions on topics related to health research ethics in collaboration with the Advisory Committee on Ethics (ACE);
- Coordinating the Stem Cell Oversight Committee (SCOC) and overseeing the ethics review process;
- Participating in Canadian and international committees and activities;
- Collaborating with the Secretariat for Responsible Conduct of Research (SRCR) to enhance ethics compliance in health research.
CIHR Ethics Committees
The Ethics Office works with ACE and SCOC to advance ethics and ethical research at CIHR.
- Advisory Committee on Ethics (ACE)
ACE provides the Vice-President, Research – Learning Health Systems with guidance to support CIHR's commitment to ethics in health research and health research ethics. The Committee provides agency-wide advice on the ethical dimensions of CIHR's mandate as set out in the CIHR Act, in close collaboration with CIHR's Ethics Office. The committee does not provide ethics advice related to human and financial resource management, and ethics issues in stem cell research. - Stem Cell Oversight Committee (SCOC)
SCOC reviews all research involving human pluripotent stem cells that have been derived from an embryonic source and/or will be transferred into humans or non-human animals to ensure compliance with Chapter 12, Section F, of the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS 2 - 2022). The SCOC review is intended to complement, at a national level, the review undertaken by the investigator's own institute's research ethics board.
Secretariat on Responsible Conduct of Research
The Secretariat on Responsible Conduct of Research (SRCR) was created by the three federal research funding agencies – Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) with a dual mandate to promote: a) ethics of human research and b) responsible conduct of research (research integrity). It is responsible for the implementation of both the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans – TCPS 2 (2022) and the Tri-Agency Framework: Responsible Conduct of Research (2021). The SRCR provides support to the Interagency Advisory Panel on Research Ethics and the Interagency Advisory Panel on Responsible Conduct of Research.
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