Terms of Reference for Departmental Research Committees (DRCs) | Surgical Departmental Research Committee

These Terms of Reference set out the role of Departmental Research Committees in the Faculty. It is understood that each Department may refine the Terms to suit its particular needs, but that such refinement will be consistent with the, principles outlined here. The activities listed below are not binding duties on the DRC but a guide to the types of functions they will perform and to the principles they should apply in defining their role.

Purpose of DRCs

To monitor, support and guide departmental research activities, aiding alignment with Faculty priorities and compliance with Faculty procedures and ethics requirements, as well as enabling research productivity at all levels.

Governance

To maintain records of research projects and to audit research outputs on an annual basis.
To submit annual written reports on departmental research to the Faculty Research Committee and the URC, for inclusion in the Faculty Research Report
To audit annually all research activities within the Department, to identify areas of current and potential strength in research and to advise on research priorities and new initiatives.
To assist the Head of Department in developing a departmental research and equipment strategy.
To provide representation on the Health Sciences Faculty Research Committee (HSFRC) and sub-committees thereof, including FHS HREC, FHS AEC, etc., and to communicate the departmental research and equipment strategy thereon.
To provide strategic guidance to the HSFRC and Deputy Dean for Research on how HSFRC funds are disbursed, in alignment with UCT's and the Faculty's mission.

Enabling Research

To assess priorities and to allocate funding derived from the HSFRC and other sources to departmental research projects.
To assist the Head of Department in soliciting, reviewing and prioritising submissions for funding of large equipment to the HSFRC and-UEC, consistent with the departmental research & equipment strategy.
To stimulate and support undergraduate and postgraduate research and postgraduate committees aware of the DRCs' roles and responsibilities.
To encourage inter-departmental and inter-institutional collaborative research.
To create awareness of guidelines set by the HSFRC for authorship and co-authorship of publications and advise on their implementation.
To create awareness among research group leaders that all laboratory notes and records are to be kept according to Faculty and University prescribed standards in order to safeguard intellectual property and to prevent fraud.
To foster and encourage postgraduate enrolment, clinician-scientist mentoring programmes, and support for new supervisors, in consultation with the Departmental Postgraduate Committee.
To create an enabling environment for emerging researchers, including mentorship and referral to sources of information on research funding, grant writing, the research process, and FHS procedures and protocols.
To ensure that researchers are aware of Faculty requirements and processes for the clearance of research proposals to external funders as outlined in form FHS002: Clearance of research proposals (also known as Cl).

Ethics

To oversee the scientific review of Departmental research proposals (including postgraduate research proposals), in order to ensure that only well-designed and scientifically sound research is submitted for review by the Faculty Ethics Committees.
To ensure that reviewers of proposals for submission to Ethics Committees are:

independent of the study and research team under review; and
experienced in the area under review.
To create awareness of regulatory requirements pertaining to recombinant DNA, biosafety and radiation safety for all research activities in the Department.
To ensure that postgraduate research proposals are reviewed for their suitability for the degree being undertaken.

March 2014