Capacity Development of Research Ethics Administrators: Scoping Review.

Capacity development of research ethics committees is generally limited to members, and seldom includes administrators. This study sought to map the capacity development efforts of research ethics administrators. A scoping review was conducted. The literature search yielded 92 potentially relevant records, and further screening yielded 22 studies. The 22 studies were extracted and synthesized; two studies spoke directly on administrators' capacity development, while the remaining 20 focused on the capacity development of committees or of committee members. The two studies which spoke directly on administrators reported about two capacity development efforts targeting administrators in Africa, namely the African Conference for Administrators of Research Ethics Committees, and the West African Bioethics Training Program.

A Survey to Determine the Capacity Development Needs of Research Ethics Committee Administrators in South Africa.

Most capacity development efforts for research ethics committees focus on committee members and little on ethics administrators. Increasing studies mandate the focus on administrators' capacity development needs to enable adequate and effective committee support. This study investigated current responsibilities, training requirements, and administrator role needs. An online cross-sectional survey was conducted among administrators from 62 National Health Research Ethics Council-registered research ethics committees in South Africa. In total, 36 administrators completed the questionnaire. Results show that, in addition to administration, they perform managerial, review process and guidance-advisory tasks. Nearly 49% indicated only having received informal research ethics-related training, not targeted formal training, with 81% of the informal training being through workshops. Research ethics administrators' responsibilities have evolved to complex tasks requiring targeted capacity development efforts.