For research conducted by or involving Defence personnel (or their data), researchers are required to obtain evidence of Defence organisational support and where appropriate, in-principle command approval prior to submitting an ethics application. 

Note: 

  • The Departments of Defence and Veterans' Affairs (DDVA) Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) does not assist with obtaining organisational support or command approval.
  • The DDVA HREC will not consider applications that have not obtained the relevant organisational and command approvals.

Further detail on the requirements for organisational support and command approval is available in:

Command approval fact sheet (PDF, 92.9 KB)

Organisational support fact sheet (PDF, 141.62 KB)

DDVA HREC Standard Operating Procedures (PDF, 413.36 KB)

Human and Animal Research Manual (PDF, 450.89 KB)

Full review

Research that involves the following requires full review by the DDVA HREC.

  • Waiver of consent for research using personal information, including personal health information, in health/medical research.
  • Women who are pregnant and the human foetus.
  • People highly dependent on medical care who may be unable to give consent.
  • People with a cognitive impairment, an intellectual disability or a mental illness.
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
  • People who may be involved in illegal activities.

Out-of-session review

Lower risk research can be submitted to DDVA HREC, via the DDVA HREC application form available under Resources, for out-of-session review where it falls outside of the remit of the:

  • Defence Science and Technology (DST) Ethics Review Panel for human systems performance research where a DST researcher is a member of the research team.
  • Defence People Group Low Risk Ethics Panel for people research.

Quality assurance or evaluation activities can be submitted to DDVA HREC for out-of-session review using the DDVA HREC quality assurance and evaluation activity checklist, available under Resources.

For further information regarding quality assurance and evaluation activities please refer to the National Health and Medical Research Councils Ethical Considerations in Quality Assurance and Evaluation Activities.

Submission instructions

A completed Human Research Ethics Application Form and any relevant supporting documentation/approvals are to be sent via email to ddva.hrec@defence.gov.au.

Note: The DDVA HREC does not grant retrospective ethics approval. Ensure that the protocol timeline allows enough time for the ethical approval process.

Resources

DDVA HREC application form (DOCX, 129.33 KB)

DDVA HREC quality assurance and evaluation activity checklist (DOCX, 40.85 KB)

Participant information sheet and consent form template (DOCX, 38.67 KB)

Participant information and consent template for online surveys (DOCX, 27.98 KB)