The Adventist University of Africa Institutional Scientific and Ethics Review Committee (AUA-
ISERC) is committed to advancing high-quality research. It seeks to establish a culture of
research ethics among AUA students, staff, and collaborators with respect to human
participants. Recognizing that research abuses occur, sometimes unintentionally and
sometimes intentionally, the Adventist University of Africa Institutional Scientific and Ethics
Review (AUA-ISERC) is the overarching Committee responsible for the ethical review of all
research proposals submitted by AUA students, staff, or external investigators involving
human participants and personal data.

The Committee is duly accredited by the National Commission for Science, Technology, and
Innovation (NACOSTI), Kenya, to conduct a scientific and ethical review of research
proposals in public health and social sciences. Inherent in the AUA-ISERC role of ethics
review and approval is the need to consider the dignity, safety, rights, autonomy,
beneficence, justice, health, and well-being of the participants and researchers.
Therefore, the AUA-ISERC provides an independent check to ensure ethical standards and
scientific merit of research involving human subjects and any research carried out under the
name of AUA.

All AUA students are subject to ISERC oversight. Students must obtain ethical clearance from
the Committee before recruiting research participants or collecting data.

Basic Ethics Training
Investigators undertaking research studies on human subjects are expected to have basic
ethics training/certification. AUA recommends Training and Resources in Research Ethics
Evaluation (TRREE).TRREE is a free online human research training program for research ethics
and evaluation.
All AUA researchers engaged in human research must complete THREE (modules 1, 2.1, and
3.1) before applying for an ethics review. Click here for more information.