Effective as of 1 January 2024, the National Office for Research Ethics Committees will no longer charge fees for applications to National Research Ethics Committees (NRECs) submitted after that date by non-commercial sponsors; that is, where the sponsor funding the study is an academic or not-for-profit organisation. All other fees will remain unchanged.
This pragmatic change is intended to support and facilitate non-commercial research in Ireland, and is in line with the fee changes to be introduced by the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA Public Consultation: Section 6.2.2). In addition, this move is in line with the European-level initiative ‘Accelerating Clinical Trials in the EU’, which aims to identify challenges for non-commercial sponsors and offer pragmatic and harmonised solutions to support their research.
Details on all application fees can be found on the Fees page of our website, where the table of fees will be updated in January to reflect this change.