Our Story

The Aotearoa Research Ethics Committee (AREC), formerly the New Zealand Ethics Committee (NZEC), is an independent, not-for-profit ethics advisory committee based in Aotearoa New Zealand, with members throughout the motu. Our committee members are dedicated volunteers with a strong interest in supporting ethical research practices in Aotearoa. As well as former and current academics and researchers, we also include lay members who bring important community perspectives.

The Aotearoa Research Ethics Committee (AREC) is operated by the Aotearoa Research Ethics Trust Board, a non-profit charity comprised of experienced researchers and ethicists.

The 2015 New Zealand Ethics Committee (copyright LT MacDonald)

Origins

The New Zealand Ethics Committee (NZEC), along with its governing body, New Zealand Ethics Limited, was founded in 2008 by former regional Health and Disability Ethics Committee chairs – Paul Flanagan, Trevor James and Martin Tolich. They were committed to using their collective experience to build an ethics infrastructure in Aotearoa New Zealand that was complementary to the health and university sector ethics review systems. From the beginning, the New Zealand Ethics Committee has provided valuable service to community-based research. Since 2012, the New Zealand Ethics Committee has been recognised by other ethics committees to be part of the fabric of ethics review in New Zealand.

NZEC was the first, as far as we know, completely voluntary ethics committee in the world. It sought to exemplify the principles of the New Brunswick Declaration on Research Ethics,1 particularly Article 5, which stated that the signatories ‘encourage regulators and administrators to nurture a regulatory culture that grants researchers the same level of respect that researchers should offer research participants (Article 5)’.

In 2019, Sir Hirini Moko Mead gifted the name Te Roopu Rapu i te Tika (The group that seeks what is right) for the New Zealand Ethics Committee. The Advisory Board of the New Zealand Ethics Committee was honoured to accept this gift.

A series of academic articles by members of NZEC discuss its unique and original place in the Aotearoa New Zealand ethics system.

Flanagan, P., & Tumilty, E. (2015). How does Voluntary Ethics Improve Research? Introducing a Community Research Development Initiative. Whanake: The Pacific Journal of Community Development, 1(2), 14–23.
Marlowe, J., & Tolich, M. (2015). Shifting from research governance to research ethics: A novel paradigm for ethical review in community-based research. Research Ethics, 11(4), 178–191. https://doi.org/10.1177/1747016115579536
Tolich, M., & Marlowe, J. (2017). Evolving power dynamics in an unconventional, powerless ethics committee. Research Ethics, 13, 42–52. https://doi.org/10.1177/1747016116657015 

A New Chapter

In 2022, the Aotearoa Research Ethics Trust (ARET) was created to oversee the governance of the ethics committee. The ethics committee was renamed the Aotearoa Research Ethics Committee (AREC). The remaining former Directors of New Zealand Ethics Limited, Associate Professor Martin Tolich and Dr Paul Flanagan, continue to provide review support and ethics guidance to the ethics committee.

As well as reviewing applications, members of the Trust Board and Committee facilitate interactive conferences, workshops, and meetings around New Zealand to encourage deeper and more compassionate research ethics review in New Zealand. We also provide ethics review and support for international researchers researching in New Zealand.

Our Role

Our name has changed, but our role has not. The Aotearoa Research Ethics Committee aims to provide independent ethical review of community research conducted in Aotearoa New Zealand, predominantly outside the medical and tertiary sectors, and to safeguard the rights and well-being of research participants and researchers.

In order to fulfill this role, we aim to:

  • foster an awareness of ethical principles and practices in the research community;
  • support researchers to protect the interests, rights, dignity, welfare, health, and well-being of participants and consumers;
  • give due consideration to community views;
  • operate consistent with Section 6 of the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act 2022 and He Korowai Oranga, by recognising and respecting the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi;
  • operate in accordance with any guidance issued or approved by the Board;
  • consult as necessary with applicants to provide educational support in ethics procedure.
  1. Gontcharov, I. (2013). Methodological Crisis in the Social Sciences: The New Brunswick Declaration as a New Paradigm in Research Ethics Governance? Transnational Legal Theory, 4, 146–156. https://doi.org/10.5235/20414005.4.1.146
    Gontcharov, I., & MacDonald, L. T. A. o T. (2016). Alternative models of ethical governance: The 2016 new Brunswick-Otago declaration on research ethics. New Zealand Sociology, 31(4), 56–69.
    Tolich, M., & Ferguson, K. (2014). Measuring the Impact of the New Brunswick Declaration. Cross-Cultural Communication, 10, 183–188. https://doi.org/10.3968/4639
    Tolich, M., & van den Hoonaard, W. C. (2014). The New Brunswick Declaration of Research Ethics: A Simple and Radical Perspective. Canadian Journal of Sociology, 39, 87–98.
    van den Hoonaard, W. C. (2013). The “Ethics Rupture” Summit, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, October 25–28, 2012. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics: An International Journal, 8, 3–7. https://doi.org/10.1525/jer.2013.8.1.3 ↩︎