Grant: Operating Grant

This research examines how best to set up an Aboriginal-based system for controlling what health research gets done in a community. This project is being done by the Inuit-Métis of Labrador in collaboration with university researchers. The objective is to determine how research can best be reviewed by the community and decisions made about whether the research is ethical and worthwhile for the community. This is important to determine for communities where there are many ways of understanding how far the community extends and many different ideas about who has the real authority to represent community interests in decisions about research. The outcome will be four-fold: (1) Nationally, information that can guide communities and researchers to thoroughly review the ethics of health research in Aboriginal communities (Guidelines for Health Research Involving Aboriginal Peoples); (2) Provincially, recommendations to the incoming Newfoundland & Labrador provincial Health Research Ethics Authority for how to review health research involving Aboriginal communities; (3) The establishment, for the Labrador Inuit-Métis, of a community-based system of health research review; and (4) Advancement of academic thinking about research ethics.