# Supporting Performance of the Ethics Committee for Research (SUPER) in Ethiopia

> **NIH NIH G11** · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $99,077

## Abstract

Abstract
The proposed project will strengthen research infrastructure in low and middle income countries by working
with the Addis Ababa University (AAU) in Ethiopia to strengthen its Institutional Review Board (IRB).
Specifically, we will enhance the ethical review quality and administrative efficiency of the AAU College of
Health Sciences IRB (AAU-CHS-IRB). This work is closely collaborative with the AAU School of Public Health,
building upon existing partnerships between AAU and Johns Hopkins University (JHU), including multiple
existing HIV/AIDS and other biomedical research and training collaborations amongst faculty at JHU and AAU,
all of whom are eager to support increased capacity of the AAU-CHS-IRB. The specific aims of this project are
to: 1) strengthen ethics knowledge and applied ethical reasoning for members of AAU-CHS-IRB, 2) strengthen
ethics knowledge and applied ethical reasoning for AAU-CHS-IRB office staff, 3) improve the administrative
efficiency and accountability of AAU-CHS-IRB systems and operations, and 4) evaluate needs and changes in
knowledge, skills, and efficiency of AAU-CHS-IRB members, staff and the committee as a whole using an
ethics knowledge tool and a novel Research Ethics Committee Assessment Tool. While ethics review of
human subject research is always important, HIV research often raises particularly complex or challenging
ethical issues involving respect for and protection of vulnerable and marginalized populations, fair benefits to
participants, and appropriate standards of care. The proposed program will therefore support the ethical
conduct of HIV/AIDS research in all areas of high national and global priority, including research to reduce the
incidence of HIV/AIDS, develop next generation therapies, and reduce health disparities. High functioning IRB
members and staff are critical components of the HIV/AIDS research workforce. Our three year training
program will include having selected individuals participate in an intensive, one-month focused research ethics
training program at JHU, on-site technical consultations from a JHU IRB expert and two African bioethics
experts (both Fogarty alumni), ethics seminars led by local ethics experts, monthly support telephone calls with
JHU and African IRB consultants, and a webinar series on meeting practical challenges of IRB operations.
These activities will provide rigorous, on-going strategies to strengthen the quality of ethics review by AAU-
CHS-IRB and its administrative efficiency, building both on JHU's expertise in research ethics and ethics
review and leveraging the expertise of two African colleagues well versed in high quality IRB operations. We
will measure AAU-CHS-IRB members' ethics knowledge before and after the program using an original tool,
and we will document various administrative efficiency measures such as time to review completion. We also
will implement an original needs assessment tool that more broadly measures committee strengths and
n...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9904789
- **Project number:** 5G11TW010551-03
- **Recipient organization:** JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Wakgari  Deressa
- **Activity code:** G11 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $99,077
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-04-24 → 2023-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9904789

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9904789, Supporting Performance of the Ethics Committee for Research (SUPER) in Ethiopia (5G11TW010551-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9904789. Licensed CC0.

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