Office for Research - Fee Schedule

As a result of the introduction of the streamlined ethical review system for multi-centre clinical trials in Victoria, Melbourne Health’s Office for Research has updated its schedule of fees for the review and assessment of all research projects:

• conducted at or by Melbourne Health; and/or
• reviewed by a Melbourne Health HREC.

The introduction of the new streamlined ethical review system has necessitated the separation of scientific/ethical and research governance/site-specific assessment processes. In accordance with this development, and in order to reflect and apportion costs accurately, the Office for Research has introduced a schedule of “Research Governance/Site-specific Assessment” fees.

The Research Governance/Site-specific Assessment fee will apply in lieu of an Ethics Review fee for all research projects conducted at or by Melbourne Health, regardless of whether or not Melbourne Health is also acting as the reviewing HREC.

An Ethics Review fee will only apply in the situation where a Melbourne Health HREC is providing scientific and ethical review but Melbourne Health is not a participating site in a given study.

Melbourne Health will charge either a Research Governance/Site-specific Assessment fee or an Ethics Review fee, in accordance with the schedule below but not both.

Research Governance/Site-specific Assessment fees are directly and wholly applied to support the operations of the Office for Research.

The Office for Research oversees all aspects of research at Melbourne Health, with the major component of work being managing the operations of the Human Research Ethics Committees and the governance of research projects undertaken at or by Melbourne Health.  The fees charged represent only partial recovery of the total cost of providing ethical and governance oversight.  Fees have been set based on the total (human and other) resources required to review a new research project upon submission and then to monitor and manage it over its lifetime.  It is intended that Melbourne Health’s fee structure is competitive with those imposed by similar organisations and reflects more accurately the actual resource allocation to the process of scientific and ethical review.

Quick links

• Research Governance - Fees
   
• Ethics Review - Fees
   
• Payment Methods

Research Governance - Site Specific Assessment

A research governance-site specific assessment fee applies to all research projects conducted at or by Melbourne Health.

New Research Project Applications

Other Research Governance Reviews

Clinical Trial Research Agreement for commercially sponsored or commercially supported4 research that does not use the standard Medicine's Australia/VMIA templates	Case by case basis
Research Agreement for non-commercially sponsored research	No Fee
Independent expert review5	Case by case basis

Ethics Review

Fees for ethics review apply only to projects submitted under the new Victorian system for single ethical review of multi-site clinical trials. An ethics review fee is payable when Melbourne Health is providing ethical review for a multi-site clinical trial and is NOT also a participating site in that trial.

New Ressearch Project Applications

Commercial sponsor	$6,050 ¹
Commercial sponsor - substudies	$2,420 ¹,²
Non-commercial external sponsor - eg collaborative group studies	$605 1

 Amendments to Research Projects

Commercial sponsor - protocol amendments	$715 ¹
Commercial sponsor - administrative changes and updated Investigator Brochures	$121 ¹
Non-commercial external sponsor - eg collaborative group studies	No Fee

¹ Fees are inclusvie of GST
 
² All sub-studies will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis and the Office for Research reserves the right to make the final decision as to the applicable review fee. To be eligible for the sub-study review fee, the sub-study must be formally derived from or an extension of a previously submitted and approved clinical trial.
 
³ In-house studies do not attract GST but must be paid by 'Internal Transfer of Funds - Cost Centres'. In-house studies paid from an external source will attract GST, making the fee $220.00.
 
4 Commercially supported research - an investigator initiated research project for which an overseas or Australian commercial entity provides substantial financial support but does not fully fund or bear overall responsibility for the project.
 
5 Independent expert review - A scientific review by an expert independent of Melbourne Health in support of a commercially sponsored or commercially supported research project. A fee for an expert review will only be charged when the cost of that review is not being directly paid to the reviewer by a study sponsor.

Payment Methods

Fees are payable in FULL at the time of the initial submission of a project or amendment and are non-refundable after the Committee review has taken place. All payments that are submitted to the Office for Research must include 2 copies of the relevant payment form. See table below for details.

Cheque - GST Compliant Tax Invoice	Cheque must be made payable to 'Melbourne Health Office for Research' Submit original cheque AND a copy of the cheque with two copies of the GST Compliant Tax Invoice Form.
Internal Transfer of Funds - Cost Centres	Available only to Melbourne Health and Western Health researchers Submit signed original AND a photocopy of the Internal Funds Transfer Form.
Payment by Credit Card	Submit signed original AND a photocopy of the Payment by Credit Card Form.
NEW Electronic Funds Transfer form - The new form has the new bank account details. Please note the old form will not be accepted.	Submit two copies of the Electronic Funds Transfer Form AND two copies of the Remittance Advice.

PLEASE NOTE
Melbourne Health does not issue invoices for payment of fees. A receipt of fee will be issued only upon request. Projects will only be accepted for submission if the applicable fee is paid upfront.

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