The Vice-Chancellor, Covenant University, Professor Abiodun H. Adebayo, has described as crucial the role of ethics in research.
He stated this while addressing participants at the 3rd Biennial Training Workshop of the Covenant Health Research Ethics Committee (CHREC), with the theme, “Advancing Ethical Research: A Focus on Clinical Trials and the Use of Animals in Research.”
Professor Adebayo congratulated participants and appreciated the efforts of the CHREC members towards promoting and improving research outcomes in the University. He pointed out that the importance of ethics in research had prompted the Covenant University Management to ensure that every researcher in the University got as much information and support as possible on research ethics.
Research ethics, said the Vice-Chancellor, was a framework of moral principles guiding the conduct of research. “This is intended to foster research that protects the interests of the public, the subjects, and the researchers,” he remarked.
According to him, there had been many scientific and ethical advances with the use of animals for pre-clinical and clinical trials. He said that animals were often used in biomedical research to study diseases, develop new drugs, and also assess potential drug safety limit. Many great strides had been made in medicine by the use of animals, he added.
Professor Adebayo noted that efforts to objectively evaluate the value of animal research for understanding and treating human diseases were particularly relevant in the modern era, considering the availability of increasingly sophisticated technologies to address the research questions.
In his welcome remarks, the Chairman, CHREC, Professor Shalom Chinedu, stated that five years after its inauguration by Professor Charles Ayo, a former Vice-Chancellor of Covenant, the CHREC had come full circle in its objective of establishing ethical review of research protocols in the University. He said that the CHREC had been duly registered with the National Health Research Ethics Committee (NHREC) of Nigeria.
Professor Chinedu stated that the ongoing training, scheduled to hold between Wednesday, 18 November 2020, and Friday, 20 November 2020, was necessitated by the expiration of the last registration in October 2020 and the current training was a requirement for the registration of CHREC for another two years by NHREC.
He revealed that the CHREC did not stop at the registration with the National body, but went ahead to apply and get registered as an Institutional Review Board (IRB) by the United States Department of Human and Health Services. The registration, he said, was valid till 2022.
The CHREC Chairman pointed out that the 3rd training workshop was unique due to the number of participants and the fact that the participants were all drawn from the four colleges of the University as well as the Medical Centre.
While stating that there would be additional training of online participants, Professor Chinedu said that every participant would at the end of the training obtain three international certifications on Bioethics in addition to HHREC/BENSON certificate.
The Secretary of the committee, Dr. Tayo George, gave the vote of thanks, appreciated the University Board and Management for their constant support, which had enabled the committee’s successes over the years. She also appreciated members of the committee and all participants for being a part of the success story of CHREC.