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NEWSLETTER
Vol. 1 No 1 February 2017
I am delighted to share the first newsletter of the Research Ethics Committee Association of Southern Africa (REASA) with our members. REASA was launched at the 4th Annual ARESA (Advanced Research Ethics Training in Southern Africa) Research Ethics Seminar in 2015 with the principle objective being to create and support sustainable networks between research ethics committees (RECs) in Southern Africa. 2016 was a year of forward thinking for the REASA steering committee. We pondered upon our mandate, we thought about REASA’s vision and contemplated what our boldest dreams would be for this multidisciplinary and independent membership association. As such, the role of REASA as a catalyst for change leadership surfaced as we considered how REASA can fulfil its mandate, rooted on the twin pillars of dialogue and consensus. We recognised that research ethics governance without these concepts is no governance at all. Amidst all of this, integrity was identified as the core ideal for moving REASA forward from its current state as a young, developing association to a mature, ever-‐evolving one. Our deliberations manifested in the adoption of the “5” C-‐framework relating to REASA’s commitment to its membership:
Co-‐operative engagement to promote the philosophy and practice of ethical human and animal research in Southern Africa; Communication by providing pertinent information; Care by fostering a sense of community among its members; Connection by establishing regional networks for the discussion of topics of mutual interest; and Capacity building through a mentoring, consulting and advocacy service for its members.
Amidst a sense of achievement stemming from the establishment of REASA, we do acknowledge missed opportunities for interaction with our members. As such, we have identified the quarterly newsletter as one of the vehicles that can facilitate stronger Steering Committee-‐Membership engagement. In Section One I would like to take the opportunity to introduce the REASA steering committee members to you. Without the dedication and hard work of these members over the past year we would not have being able to take this initiative forward. I would also like to extend a hearty word of welcome to the REASA members, whose continued support and participation has ensured that REASA will not remain the dream of a few individuals that are passionate about research ethics. To ensure that this initiative continues, we invite members to participate in the first Annual General Meeting (AGM) of REASA which will take place in tandem with the ARESA seminar on 11 May 2017 in Cape Town. Please peruse the information in Section Two of the newsletter for more information about this event.
For our members on Animal Research Ethics Committees, kindly note the announcement of the Animal Ethics Conference that will be held in the Cape Town area from 1-‐3 October 2017 as indicated in Section Three of the newsletter. Finally, without financial resources, REASA cannot thrive, nor survive. Therefore, it is important for us to acknowledge the funding that has been received from the ARESA programme which has greatly contributed to REASA meeting its operational demands, which has included securing the services of a web designer. As such, members can look forward to an active website soon!
Dr Retha Visage, Chairperson of the REASA Steering Committee
SECTION ONE: Meeting the Steering Committee
Dr Retha Visagie is the Manager: Research Integrity at the University of South Africa (UNISA), where she has been an advocate for research ethics reform since 2012. In 2010, she was awarded a doctorate degree in Psychiatric Nursing Science by the University of Johannesburg. She completed a postgraduate diploma in Health Research Ethics (Cum Laude) through the University of Stellenbosch in 2015, receiving the prestigious title of Fogarty Fellow. Retha is an ethics educator affiliated to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), a certified ethics officer (University of Stellenbosch), and an advanced business and life coach (Unisa). She is active in the Southern African research ethics community and, as such, is the chairperson of the steering committee of the Research Ethics Committee Association of Southern Africa (REASA), the first membership association of its kind in Southern Africa. Her research niche area focuses on building research capacity in universities with a special interest in research ethics governance. She remains active as a research supervisor. She has co-‐authored numerous peer-‐reviewed journal articles and presented
papers at national and international conferences. She is currently the deputy chairperson of the Unisa Research and Innovation Ethics Review Committee. Retha has previous experience of chairing Research Ethics Committees in Management and Economic sciences.
Associate Prof Wayne Towers
Prof Towers is the academic advisor for the Ethics Office for Research, Training and Support in the Faculty of Health Sciences, North-‐West University (Potchefstroom campus since 2014. In 2014, Prof Towers was appointed as a member of the newly established Health Research Ethics Committee (HREC) at the university and became vice chairperson of the HREC in September 2014. He holds a PhD in Biochemistry and completed a postgraduate diploma in health research ethics at Stellenbosch University in 2015, which he passed with distinction. As he passed top of the class, he was partly funded to attend the International Association of Bioethics conference that was held in June 2016 in Edinburgh, Scotland where he presented as part of a symposium session. His research focus is currently on genetic epidemiology but he is building a future research track in the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of genetic and genomic
research. Wayne has been appointed to an Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) panel in February 2016, which is currently setting up guidelines focussed on the ELSI of genetic and genomic research. He is currently the Chairperson of the Faculty’s Health Research Ethics Committee as well as an advisory member of the AnimCare Committee and the newly established Education, Management, Humanities and Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee (EMHS-‐REC). He is also a member of the Institutional Research Ethics Regulatory Committee since February 2016 and is serving as the deputy Chairperson on the Steering Committee of REASA.
Dr Nanette Briers
Nanette Briers is a senior lecturer in the School of Anatomical Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She holds an MSc in Physiology and a PhD in Anatomy as well as a Diploma in Tertiary Education and a Postgraduate Diploma in Health Research Ethics (cum laude). Besides teaching anatomy to undergraduate students, she also supervises postgraduate students and serves as reviewer and editorial board member for international journals. Her research focuses on Physical and Forensic Anthropology, specifically craniofacial identification of juvenile and adult remains, as required for presumptive victim identification in homicide, missing person
cases and mass disasters. In addition, she also studies patterns of facial growth in children relevant to age progression in missing children. She was a member of the Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Health Science, University of Pretoria for several years and has a special interest in the ethical issues surrounding the use of DNA, human remains and children in research. She is currently serving on the Steering Committee of REASA as the Treasurer.
Prof Brenda Morrow
Brenda Morrow qualified as a physiotherapist in 1995. She is currently a Professor in the Department of Paediatrics, University of Cape Town. She completed her PhD in 2005 and in 2014 completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Health Research Ethics through the ARESA program (cum laude). Brenda is an active researcher, and teaches and supervises undergraduate and postgraduate students from many disciplines. She has over 70 peer reviewed publications; has co-‐ edited a textbook on Cardiopulmonary Physiotherapy in Trauma (the first in its field); written 11 book chapters; and presented at numerous national and international medical congresses. She chairs her Departmental Research Committee; and is a member of the Faculty of Health Sciences Human Research Ethics Committee, and the Steering Committee of REASA; as well as many other special interest,
editorial and advisory boards. She is a regular reviewer for numerous international journals.
Dr Bert Mohr
Dr Bert Mohr (BVSc, MMedVet, DPhil, Dip.ECVIM-‐CA) has worked in the field of animal research for 19 years. He is a registered veterinary specialist, and holds European board certification in veterinary internal medicine. He is a member of several Animal Ethics Committees, and has contributed substantively to the advance of national standards for animal care and use for scientific purposes. Being passionate about research quality and animal welfare, he presents training in animal ethics and welfare, ethical review, legislation and standards, policy development, research study design and scientific procedures. He is president of the South African Association for Laboratory Animal Science (SAALAS); Co-‐Chair of the African regional committee of the International Council for
Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS); a council member on the South African Veterinary Council (SAVC); and a council member on the National Health Research Ethics Council (NHREC). He serves as the Director of the University of Cape Town’s Research Animal Facility; as Director of Veterinary Scientific Services in the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town; and as Scientific Investigator in the Hatter Institute for Cardiovascular Research in Africa, University of Cape Town. He is the Director of the specialist-‐consulting firm, Scientific Veterinary Consulting (Pty) Ltd.
Dr Shenuka Singh
Dr Singh is currently the Acting College Dean -‐ Teaching and Learning in the College of Health Sciences, UKZN. She has a primary degree in Oral Health, a post-‐graduate diploma in Health Research Ethics, a master’s degree in Dental Sciences and a doctoral degree in Dentistry (in the field of Dental Public Health). She is involved in undergraduate clinical training and postgraduate research supervision. She is the Chair of the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee at UKZN and a member of the Biomedical Research Ethics Committee (BREC) at UKZN. In addition, she is the Chair of the Research Ethics Committee (Research and Development) at Council for Science and Industry, South Africa (2015-‐2018). She was recently appointed as a member of the National Health Research Ethics Council of South Africa (2016-‐2019). She has published in both local and
international peer-‐reviewed journals and has presented papers at local and international conferences.
Mr Francis Masiye
Mr. Masiye received a Bachelor of Philosophy (cum laude) in Applied Ethics from the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome, Italy in 2000, and a Master of Science in Bioethics from the University of Cape Town in 2015. In 2006, he attended a Fogarty Fellowship Program in Bioethics and International Health Research Ethics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, USA. He joined the University Of Malawi College Of Medicine in 2005 as a Research Officer for the Wellcome Trust funded Bioethics Research Project and later as a Compliance Officer for the College of Medicine Research and Ethics Committee (COMREC) where he worked for six years. He has participated in
various research consultancies in health systems & policy, health research ethics as well as in the areas of HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria with the World Bank, WHO, United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Concern Universal, World Vision International (WVI), Malawi National Aids Commission and the Malawi-‐Liverpool-‐Wellcome Trust. He is currently working as a Health Research Ethics Administrator in the Division of Research Development and Support at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the Stellenbosch University. Francis has published several articles and book chapters in bioethics, international research ethics and medical anthropology. He is serving as a Steering Committee member of REASA.
Dr Dudu Jankie
Dr Dudu Jankie is a senior lecturer in the area of language education in the Department of Languages & Social Sciences Education, Faculty of Education at the University of Botswana. She completed her PhD at the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 2001. She completed the Post-‐Graduate Diploma in Health Research Ethics programme at the University of Stellenbosch in 2016. In addition to various language education courses, Dr Jankie has taught the qualitative component of an undergraduate mixed methods research course entitled ‘Research Methods in Language and Social Sciences Education’ to in-‐service secondary school teachers. Further, she has taught the course ‘Qualitative Research Methods’ to graduate students enrolled in various specializations in the Faculty
of Education. Dr Jankie has been a member of the University of Botswana Institutional Review Board (UB-‐IRB) since 2011. She currently serves as the Vice chairperson of the University of Botswana Institutional Review Board (IRB): Socio-‐Behavioural Sub-‐Committee. Dudu is an expert on various aspects of qualitative research and research ethics and is a member of the Steering Committee of REASA.
Mrs Tanya Coetzee
Tanya Coetzee completed the Postgraduate Diploma in Health Research Ethics at the University of Stellenbosch as part of the ARESA Programme in 2014. She is currently enrolled for the M Phil (Bioethics) at the same University. Her background is in Political and Developmental Sciences and interest and studies are in global research ethics. She is part of the Ethics Capacity Training Course presented by TUT/UNISA to Ethics Educators and is passionate about ethics education and the importance of teaching ethics education to undergraduate students. She serves on the Organisation Committee for the International Association for Ethics Education Conference in 2018. Tanya is an active member on the Faculty of Science Ethics Committee at TUT since 2012. She is serving on the Steering Committee of REASA currently responsible for Public Relations and Communication.
We are very proud to introduce our two Ex-‐Officio members which are playing a pivotal role in REASA:
Prof Keymanthri Moodley
MBChB (Natal), MFamMed cum laude (Stell), MPhil cum laude (Applied Ethics) (Stell), FCFP (SA), DPhil (Stell) Executive MBA (UCT) is a Professor in the Department of Medicine and Director of the Centre for Medical Ethics and Law, Faculty of Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University. She is a family physician and a bioethicist. In 2013, she was rated by the National Research Foundation (NRF) as an established researcher based on her numerous national and international publications, conference presentations, her role on national bodies like the MRC Board and the National Health Research Ethics Council (NHREC) and her involvement in international organisations such as the WHO, International AIDS Society (IAS) and NIH DSMBs. She has worked as principal investigator on clinical trials since 1999, and served on the University Research Ethics Committee. The Centre has been
designated as a Collaborating Centre in Bioethics by the World Health Organisation, one of seven in the world and the first on the African continent. The main activities of the Centre include bioethics teaching, empirical research in bioethics and clinical ethics consultation. Since 2011, Keymanthri has co-‐hosted an NIH Fogarty program to develop capacity in Health Research Ethics in Africa in collaboration with the Bioethics Center, University of North Carolina-‐Chapel Hill, USA. The program has graduated 40 postgraduate scholars from 10 African countries over the past 4 years. In 2013, she was awarded a second NIH grant to examine the ethical and social issues associated with HIV Cure research. In 2015, the Centre was awarded its third NIH grant to explore ethical, legal and social issues related to genomic biobanking. Keymanthri is a member of the Academy of Science in South Africa and completed an Executive MBA in 2015. She is currently Chair of the MRC REC.
Prof Stuart Rennie
Research Assistant Professor, Social Medicine Co-‐Chair, UNC Behavioral Institutional Review Board MA 1995, Anthropology, University of Leuven, Belgium PhD 2001, Philosophy, University of Leuven, Belgium. Stuart Rennie is a Research Assistant Professor in Social Medicine and co-‐Chair of UNC-‐Chapel Hills Institutional Review Board for social and behavioral research. His background is in philosophy and medical anthropology, and his doctoral dissertation concentrated on the impact that luck and chance can have on attributions of moral responsibility. Prof Rennie's current teaching and research interests focus on research ethics, public health ethics and medical ethics, particularly in the context of the developing world. He is currently co-‐Principal Investigator of a NIH/Fogarty International Center bioethics
capacity building project in the Central Francophone Africa ('Building Bioethics Capacity and Justice in Health'), and works as ethics consultant for CDC/Global AIDS Projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Madagascar. Prof Rennie was Visiting Lecturer at the Center for Bioethics in Stellenbosch, and Lecturer in philosophy at UNC-‐Greensboro, as well as Lecturer in applied ethics in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Cape Town. In addition to giving guest lectures on research ethics and bioethics within various departments at UNC, Prof Rennie regularly leads a graduate seminar on Global Health Ethics and co-‐teaches a doctoral seminar on the history and philosophy of epidemiology at the UNC School of Public Health. As ethics consultant, Prof Rennie has acted as lead author of the Ethics Guidance for Research (2009) of the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) and has provided ethics consultation for UNC researchers as a member of the International Core of the UNC's Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). He was also ethics consultant for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) of the Minnesota Department of Human Services. Prof Rennie is also ethics reviewer for the European and Developing World Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) and the Wellcome Trust. Prof Rennie has also successfully applied for NIH grants to conduct qualitative research on rationing AIDS treatment in DR Congo and community attitudes to male circumcision as an HIV prevention
strategy in Malawi. He has published in peer-‐reviewed journals such as PLoS Medicine, Science, the Hastings Center Report, Developing World Bioethics and the Journal of Medical Ethics on a variety of themes, including informed consent, HIV testing policies, medical rationing, implementation ethics, research involving children, health surveillance, health inequality and social justice. He also writes for his own Global Bioethics Blog.
SECTION TWO: ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING REASA
The first annual general meeting (AGM) of REASA will be held on 11 May 2017 from 17:00 at the Vineyard Hotel, Newlands, Cape Town. At this meeting, the Chairperson and Treasurer’s report will serve. The members will vote on the nominations received for the appointment to the Steering Committee for the next term of office. Nominations for these positions must reach the Secretary by 20 April 2017 on forms which will be made available to all members with the formal announcement. REASA is aiming to appoint members to the Steering Committee that are representative of its members in relation to regional representation, institutional representation, race, gender and disability. The members are requested to participate actively in the call for nominations.
SECTION THREE: ANNOUNCEMENTS
Animal Ethics Conference
An Animal Ethics Conference will be held in the Cape Town area from 1-‐3 October 2017, by the South African Association for Laboratory Animal Science (SAALAS), including several topics related to animal ethics and ethical review processes, with specific continuing education opportunities for Animal Ethics Committee members. The conference will have representation from across the world and will represent current philosophies in animal ethics internationally. The International Council for Laboratory Animal Science (ICLAS) will hold their Annual General Assembly in partnership with the SAALAS conference on the day preceding the conference on 31 October 2017. For further announcements about the conference please see the SAALAS website at www.saalas.org
SARIMA Conference
The South African Research and Innovation Management Association has their annual Conference meeting on 22-‐25 May 2017 at the Safari Court Hotel and Conference Centre in Windhoek, Namibia. For more information please visit www.sarimaconf.co.za
Join us on the REASA Facebook page.
Contact [email protected] for further details or phone 012 429 2478
