About Us

Welcome to the North-West University Education, Management and Economic Sciences, Law, Theology, Engineering and Natural Sciences-Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee. The NWU-EMELTEN-SSREC is a registered research ethics committee with the National Health Research Ethics Council (NHREC) of the national Department of Health. The purpose of the NWU-EMELTEN-SSREC is to promote research ethics by ensuring that participants are protected and to ensure that research integrity and the highest ethical standards are maintained at the NWU.

The role and function of the NWU-EMELTEN-SSREC:

  • The NWU-EMELTEN-SSREC administrates, manages and evaluates research ethics applications with a non-health focus that involve vulnerable participants and/or where there is a medium- or high-risk possibility of potential disadvantages for the participants.
  • The NWU-EMELTEN-SSREC is responsible for:
    • The evaluation and approval of new research ethics applications.
    • The amendment of research projects for which ethics approval has already been given.
    • The monitoring of ongoing research projects that have received ethics approval.
    • The training of NWU researchers in research ethics.
  • The NWU-EMELTEN-SSREC acts immediately when any adverse incidents occur during the research process that might negatively impact the safety of participants, the researchers and the University’s name.
  • The NWU-EMELTEN-SSREC makes recommendations, gives advice and reports to the NHREC and the Research Ethics Regulatory Committee (RERC), which is a subcommittee of the NWU Senate. Annual reports are also submitted to the aforementioned committees.