About RE² and the Research Ethics Education Portal

Over the past decade, the institutions making up the Toronto Academic Health Sciences Network (TAHSN), including the University of Toronto, have worked diligently to develop and govern effective research ethics review processes compliant with recognized policies, guidelines and standards. In 2006, the Vice-Provost Health Care Relations commissioned a Task Force on Human Subjects Research that included representation from the ten affiliated hospitals and the health faculties at the University of Toronto. The central recommendation of the Task Force was to create a Central Clinical Research Resource Group that has educational, resource, information hub, and web portal functions. Moreover, with respect to the educational functions, the Task Force recommended that the Resource Group work with TAHSN institutions to develop a central and definitive resource for education, courses, workshops (local and web-based) for students, investigators, research staff and REB members at U of T and affiliated hospitals.

As the Joint Centre for Bioethics is a partnership between the University of Toronto and affiliated health care organizations with a mission to provide and promote education, it is a natural home for research ethics education coordination, which in turn fulfills this part of the Task Force's central recommendation. To address issues and cases in research ethics, the JCB hosts a committee called (RE)² (Research Ethics Research and Education), who meet bi-weekly at the JCB. In response to the TAHSN Task Force recommendation, the (RE)² group have recently developed the research ethics education coordination initiative, which includes the development of a research ethics web portal. The portal, which can be found at http://reportal.joincentreforbioethics.ca, has a number of functions that are invaluable to researchers, students, REB members and coordinators.