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Department of Primary Industries

Secretary's Animal Care and Ethics Committee Use Criteria

Use Criteria have been developed to assist stakeholders when considering whether the Secretary’s ACEC is the right committee for them.

Use Criteria:

  1. The project must be undertaken in the State of NSW. Projects also being conducted interstate should seek approval from relevant State based Committee. Applications for projects that will also be conducted in States and Territories with no public facing committee will be considered on a case-by-case basis by the Secretary’s ACEC.
  2. The individual or organisation has not had an ARA cancelled due to non-compliance or been convicted under the Act or equivalent interstate legislation.
  3. If the business is a corporation, they must be accredited in NSW as an Animal Research Establishment.
  4. If the applicant is from an Accredited Research Establishment, that establishment employs less than ten employees involved in animal research and teaching activities and maintains ten or fewer concurrently approved projects.
  5. Where the applicant undertakes remote work, monitoring of remote projects must be completed via reporting with provision of visual evidence as requested by the ACEC.
  6. Applications will be subject to the Secretary’s ACEC fee schedule.
  7. Applicants will be subject to risk-based monitoring of their fixed facilities at least triennially.
  8. Users of the Secretary’s ACEC, the ACEC members and support staff maintain a mutual expectation of reasonable and fair treatment. Abusive or disrespectful behaviour will not be tolerated.  Where a user of the ACEC is unhappy with decisions, treatment, or processes of the ACEC, grievance procedures should be followed to investigate the matter in a professional, respectful, and transparent manner.

What the SACEC will not oversee:

  1. Researchers employed by Accredited Research Establishments with more than ten employees involved in animal research and teaching activities and/or requiring more than ten projects approved concurrently.
  2. Researchers who own or are employed by businesses that are not accredited but should be.
  3. Researchers that have had the same, unchanged application rejected by other ACECs.

Please refer the FAQ document for further information