Research Ethics Office
Research Ethics Office
About Research Ethics Office
The AHRI-ALERT research ethics review committee (AAERC) is established in accordance with
international research guidelines to review, approve and monitor research involving human
subjects. Its primary responsibility is to ensure the rights, safety, and benefits of participation
(minimizes harm with possible maximization of benefits) of research participants in research
involving humans. The Research Ethics Office (REO) is established to assist and hasten the work
of this committee. The AAERC is an independent committee responsible for the ethical conduct
of research works in compliance with the relevant laws, guidelines, policies and best practices
to ensure that the participation of individuals/community groups is protected against their
involuntary participation and risk.
Staff Composition
01 office head,
01 Admin secretary,
01 secretary with open positions for assistant researchers to senior researchers
Committee Composition
Thirteen; 10 affiliated and 3 non-affiliated professionally diverse and gender balanced review members including 2 community representatives. The committee is functioning optimally with internationally established ethical standards and national guidelines to meet the needs of researchers. The committee regularly meets monthly and may also meet when needed to speed up review. The committee has received recognition from the strategic Initiative for Developing Capacity in Ethics Review (SIDCER) since 2009 with support from WHO/TDR and updated its renewal recently in November 2023.
AHRI/ALERT Ethics Review Committee (AAERC)
The AAERC was established in 1986, although there was no formal standard operating procedure (SOP) then. With calls for clinical trial initiatives, the Institute needed to re-establish a stronger and formalized ethics review committee, which was then formed as AHRI/ALERT Ethics Review Committee (AAERC) in 2004.The Committee has received recognition from the Strategic Initiative Developing Capacity in Ethics Review (SIDCER) in 2009 with strong assistance from the WHO/TDR and the Pan-Africa Bioethics Initiatives (PABIN).Since then the Committee is functioning optimally with established ethical standards of ICH-GCP as well as the national guideline to meet the needs of clinical trial investigators and post-graduate students and different investigators. The Committee works with researchers to promote high quality research and also has mechanisms for expedited review. The Committee regularly meets monthly and may also meet when needed to speed up review processes.
The Committee has its terms of reference as well as SOP to optimally run its activities in the Institute. AHRI hosts the secretariat of the Committee, which is composed of the chairperson and secretaries. Currently the Committee is composed of 12 active members with multidisciplinary expertise, good gender and age balance.
AAERC Members
- Dr Samuel Teshome (Chair)
- Dr Kassa Haile
- Mrs Yemisrach Zewdie
- Miss Mekdelawit Alemayehu
- Melese Yirga
- Getachew Tesfaye
- Mr Abyot Endale
- Dr Tesfaye Gelanew
- Dr Hailemichael Getachew (Vice Chair)
- Demekech Damte (Member Secretary)
- Dr Adamu Bayissa
- Dr Birtukan Harun
- Dr Ahmed Bedru
- Dr Fanos Tadesse
- Mrs Melat Gebremedhin
- Mrs Ruth Solomon (admin secretary)
Further check list and application forms can be downloaded from the link bellow :
IRB Application Forms & Guidelines
2026 AAERC Tentative Meeting Date
No. Date
1 17-Jun-26
2 8-Jul-26
3. 12-Aug-26
4. 9-Sep-26
5 14-Oct-26
6 11-Nov-26
7 9-Dec-26