The Philippine Research Ethics Board (PHREB) in partnership with DOST Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD), conducted a 2-day online training on Basic Research Ethics last 23 & 24 September 2020. The training aimed to capacitate committee members of the consortium in expanding their knowledge and skills in research ethics, for the pursuit of promoting ethical soundness of all the researches being submitted and produced from the consortium and in the region as a whole.

Dr. Sonia Bongala, Chair of the PHREB Committee on Standards and Accreditation (CSA) and Dr. Peter A. Sy, Associate Professor of the University of the Philippines Diliman, formally opened the event with an introduction to ethics and research, and its underlying fundamental principles. This was followed with interactive sessions of sample incidents pertaining to unethical research as well as small group works applying the principles of research ethics, and measuring the benefits and risks involved. Discussions on preparing an adequate and appropriate informed consent process and form was also conducted followed by analyzing scenarios on obtaining informed consent.

On the second day, Dr. Rhodora C. Estacio, also a member of PHREB – CSA along with Dr. Sonia Bongala, discussed about protecting vulnerability in research, fair selection of research subjects, factors to considering a qualified researcher, the international and national guidelines, and discussion on navigating ethics review process. Small group works were also provided after each lesson and open forum was done to address concerns related to the discussed topics.

At the end of the training, the participants were able to gain skills on how to properly scrutinize studies and documents pertaining to its technical and ethical soundness. This is important since Research Management Committee and the Ethics Review Committee of the consortium work hand-in-hand in evaluating research proposals, all in the name of reproducibility and transparency.

Dr. Gerna M. Manatad, OIC Assistant Regional Director of the Department of Health Center for Health Development Caraga, formally closed the event thanking the Resource Persons and Facilitators of PHREB for imparting their knowledge and skills to CHRDC.