Guidelines on the modifications process.
As the Chief Investigator of a UNSW Animal Care and Ethics Committee (ACEC) approved project, you are required to complete and submit a separate online monitoring form for each of your projects for the reporting period, 1 January to 31 December.
Your monitoring forms are to be submitted no later than 1 February each year for the activities of the previous year. Your submission of these forms is a mandatory legislative requirement, as each year the ACECs are required to monitor projects that use animals in research and teaching. Approval of your projects will be suspended should you fail to submit this compliance form.
You may delegate authority to the second Chief Investigator to complete the form on your behalf.
In January each year you will receive an email with details on how to complete these Animal Usage and Annual Compliance form via Animal Ethics Online:
Guidelines for completing Animal Ethics Reporting
The RECS unit will be checking all submitted monitoring forms. You may be required to resubmit your monitoring form if questions are not adequately addressed. In this case, you will be notified by email and the submitted form will be reverted to a draft format for you to edit.
If you have received a notice to resubmit a monitoring form, please log back into the form using the instructions above and amend the form before resubmitting.
FAQs:
- For any project expired at the time of completing the report - mark the status as 'completed'
- Ensure any reported deviations from the approved protocol are recorded. This does not include adverse events unless they have been found to result in a deviation.
- Ensure that the procedure chosen reflects the highest appropriate numerical code (1-9) from those listed in the above guidelines. Generally this reflects the procedure/s with the highest impact.
- Ensure that you correctly answer the question regarding Schedule 8/9 drugs. This applies if you have authority to hold these substances even if you have not used Schedule 8/9 drugs during the calendar year.
All unexpected adverse events and deaths require the submission of a completed Unexpected Adverse Event Report to animalcare@unsw.edu.au.
Unexpected adverse events include but are not limited to:
- Death of an animal or group of animals that was not expected (e.g. during surgery or anaesthesia, or after a procedure or treatment),
- Adverse events following a procedure or treatment that were not expected,
- Adverse effects in a larger number of animals than predicted during the planning of the project or activity based on the number of animals actually used, not the number approved for the study,
- A greater level of pain or distress than was predicted during the planning of the project or activity,
- Power failures, inclement weather, emergency situations or other factors external to the project or activity that have a negative impact on the welfare of the animals.
Further information available from the UNSW Animal Research Adverse Event Standard Operating Procedure.
The Animal Transfer Request program was developed in line with the principle of Reduction as per the Code (Clause 1.22), to promote the reuse of animals.
Submit a completed Animal Transfer Request Form to animalcare@unsw.edu.au via email and include the relevant facility manager.
The tissue sharing program was developed in line with the principle of Reduction as per the Code (Clause 1.26).
Contact animalcare@unsw.edu.au to be added to the tissue sharing mailing list.
UNSW has established a complaints, allegations of non-compliance and grievances framework for UNSW staff, students and persons external to the University to ensure transparency and oversight of research aligned with RECS portfolios.
Complaints about the conduct of research and teaching by UNSW staff, students and visitors involving animals, as well as instances of research conducted without the appropriate ethical approval or not in accordance with the approved Animal Care and Ethics Committees (ACECs) protocol, are to be reported to the Director Research Ethics & Compliance Support (RECS), Samela Husakovic (s.husakovic@unsw.edu.au). Where deemed appropriate, matters may be referred to the UNSW Conduct & Integrity Office (research.integrity@unsw.edu.au).
To access the UNSW complaints pathway, including explanations on how to submit a complaint, please check here.
Grievances about ethics review and processes for animal research by UNSW staff and students should be addressed directly to the Director RECS to be assessed against institutional and legislative frameworks.
Records related to your ACEC-approved project must be retained in accordance with the UNSW Handling Research Material & Data Procedure and UNSW record retention guidelines for a minimum period of seven years after project completion. Paper records may be scanned and retained as electronic copies for this purpose. For further details contact the Records & Archives team (records@unsw.edu.au) or RECS (animalethics@unsw.edu.au).
For disposal of records please refer to the following website: Destroying Records | Records & Archives - UNSW Sydney