Collection Access and Research Advisory Committee (CARAC) Platform Launch

The National Centre for Indigenous Genomics (NCIG) manages a collection of 7,000 blood samples, historical document archive, genomic data, and survey results—now known as the NCIG Collection.  

The Indigenous-majority governance board of NCIG controls access to the material in the NCIG Collection according to the NCIG Governance Framework (https://ncig.anu.edu.au/files/NCIG-Governance-Framework.pdf), ensuring that all decisions are made with the Indigenous community's best interests in mind. The board will only grant access to researchers who intend to conduct projects that are beneficial to the community, reinforcing our commitment to supporting research that aligns with our values and promotes positive outcomes for Indigenous peoples. 

Requests from researchers for access to the Collection must be approved by the Collection Access and Research Advisory Committee (CARAC) and the Indigenous-majority NCIG governance board. To streamline this process, NCIG has partnered with ANU Research and Innovation Services (RIS) and ANU Planning and Service Performance (PSP) to create a module within the existing Research Ethics Management System (REMS) platform. This module will enable both internal and external researchers to submit access requests to NCIG and track the progress of their collaboration requests for access to the NCIG Collection. 

We are excited to launch this new platform, which is accessible to ANU staff and students and can also accommodate non-ANU individuals via an invitation link. To kickstart the application process, the prerequisite is to have an active REMS account and a research team to initiate the project application form. If you currently hold an ANU ID and are new to the REMS platform, please contact the RIS support team (research.systems@anu.edu.au) for assistance in creating your research team. For external researchers, to obtain an invitation link, please reach out to NCIG staff (jcsmr.ncig@anu.edu.au) and provide the following information. NCIG will assist you with your account setup. 

• Your preferred name  

• Your best contact email  

• Research team name  

• Research team supervisor 

Submissions will be accepted four times a year. The deadline will be four weeks before the Board meeting, the next submission deadline is Friday 30 August 2024.

The Board decision will be available via ANU REMS three weeks after the Board meeting.