The Research Ethics Committee (REC) of The National Maternity Hospital is a National Committee that is approved to receive and approve application proposals nationally. The REC will consider research projects which are proposed to take place in the hospital.

Monthly meetings are held with the exception of August.  There is one quarter lay attendance and a quorum is required at each meeting. All submissions must be received into the Secretary two weeks prior to this in order to be reviewed by the committee at this meeting.

Generally, the applications are approved at each meeting; if not approved the Chairman will request clarification on a particular issue. Please note secure email addresses should only be used for studies, hotmail & gmail accounts are not acceptable

Important Information – The Research Ethics Committee never access patient information / records.  Therefore, this should not be information that you include on the Patient Information Leaflet. 

Applications for the January 2025 meeting must be received by Friday 27th December 2024 @ 4pm. Please send EIGHT paper copies of ALL your documentation e.g. Standard Application Form, Patient Information Leaflets, Consent Forms to the Secretary at the address below.  We will also need an electronic copy of these documents sent to ethicsresearch@nmh.ie

All applications must have a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) conducted, see the form below.

The documentation listed below on the checklist must be completed and forwarded to the Secretary before the application can be considered. Please ensure the consent form is reviewed  & amended accordingly as not all paragraphs or sentences in this sample will apply to your particular study. The consent form and patient information leaflet should be on separate sheets, understandable and easy to read for non-medical individuals.  It is always better for there to be only one consent form for the study to avoid confusion.

When the study has received ethical approval from the Committee it should be noted that given the potential use of hospital resources / data, permission from the appropriate departments must also be sought within the Hospital e.g. Pharmacy, Laboratory, Radiology before commencement of the study.

Applications and queries for the Research Ethics Committee can be sent to:

Lee-anne Phillips,
Medical Secretary, Research Ethics Committee,
The Medical Records Dept
The National Maternity Hospital,
Holles Street,
Dublin 2.
DO2 YH21

Tel: (01) 637 3542
E-mail: ethicsresearch@nmh.ie