From 1st January, 2010 to 31st December, 2011, National Cheng Kung University(NCKU) received funding for the project: "Governance Framework for Human Research Ethic" from the Department of Humanities of the National Science Council (renamed as the Ministry of Science and Technology). This project was spearheaded by the National Science Council based on the objectives of the 8th National Science and Technology Conference (i.e. to encourage universities and research institutes in order to establish an Institutional Review Board (IRB) (including social and behavioral science research), and to enhance personnel training and counseling to guarantee the quality of ethical reviews). This project was aimed at ensuring research activities in Taiwan and protecting the rights of research subjects (or participants), thus fulfilling the social and academic responsibilities of researchers.
NCKU had spent two years searching for ethical arguments in various academic disciplines that employ human participants in research; these include humanities, social/behavioral science, engineering and science. Based on the said information, the school established an appropriate ethical review framework, regulations, procedures, forms, documents and other educational activities that could help facilitate responsible and ethical research activities in Taiwan. The project has three main objectives:
- Based on the pre-existing Institutional Review Board (IRB) in its department of medicine, the school extends the IRB's function, making it an institutional and regional level governance framework for human research ethics. This framework is designed to manage all research projects with human participants.
- Under this governance framework for human research ethics, the school plans to establish two human research ethical review committees. One is responsible for biological and medical research reviews, while the other is responsible for humanities, social/behavioral sciences, engineering and scientific education.
- To provide consultation, reviews, education and other services that uphold the rights of research participants which are relevant to the stakeholders of academic research projects that employ human participants; these services focus on researchers from various institutions in the southern regions of Taiwan, Taitung, Kinmen and Penghu.