About the St Vincent’s Hospital Research Office

The Research Office is a department of St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney Limited.  The Office is the secretariat of the St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney HREC and is also responsible for Research Governance review across St Vincent's Hospital, St Vincent’s Private Hospital, the Mater Hospital Sydney and the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute.

St Vincent's Hospital Sydney HREC is accredited as a Lead HREC by NSW Ministry of Health and is also a Certified Institution under the National Mutual Acceptance Scheme (NMA). The St Vincent's Hospital Sydney HREC is able to extend ethical and scientific review to projects being conducted at public and private health sites nationally.

Currently, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory and Western Australia participate in NMA and all NEW multi-centre Human Research Projects submitted on a HREA conducted across public health sites in the participating jurisdictions are eligible for single ethical review. More information regarding NMA can be found here or by contacting the Research Office.

The St Vincent’s Hospital HREC operates under the requirements set out by the National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC). All research involving humans must conform to the NHMRC National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2007) and the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research (2007).  

The St Vincent’s Hospital Research Office staff has extensive experience preparing and reviewing submissions to the St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney HREC, and are able to provide advice and assistance with submissions to the Committee, as well as site specific applications for governance review at St Vincent’s Hospital, St Joseph’s Hospital, St Vincent’s Private Hospital, the Mater Hospital Sydney and the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute. We encourage all researchers wishing to undertake projects involving humans across the network to make the Research Office their first point of contact.

NSW Ministry of Health

The NSW Office for Health and Medical Research (OHMR) is responsible for developing, communicating, implementing and evaluating policies, frameworks and guidelines to ensure that ethical considerations are given proper weight in medical and clinical practice, and research within the NSW public health system. Further information can be found at the NSW OHMR website.

The St Vincent’s Hospital Research Office also provides secretarial support to the St Vincent’s Hospital New Interventional Procedures Assessment Committee (NIPAC) and the St Vincent’s Hospital Intellectual Property Committee (IPC).