Speed of ethics and governance approvals in Australia before and after the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study

Abstract Background Multiple Australian jurisdictions reported the introduction of measures to speed the processing of research projects addressing the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome 2 SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic. The goal of this study was to compare the times taken for ethics committee and governance approvals of projects before and after the pandemic onset. Methods Data were sought from all 8 Australian states and territories for ethics and governance approvals made between 1/1/2019 and 31/12/2021 and 99% of ethics approvals and 98% of governance approvals fell within this period. Median (range) times from submission to approval were compared for pre-pandemic submissions made before 1/1/2020 and for post-pandemic submissions made after that date. For the post-pandemic period comparisons were also made between projects addressing COVID-19 and those addressing other topics. Differences in median times were tested using non-parametric tests. Results Data were obtained for 4876 ethics approvals from 8 states and for 4604 governance approvals from 5 states. 36% (1751) of ethics approvals and 29% (1313) of governance approvals were pre-pandemic and of the post-pandemic approvals, 6% (174) of ethics approvals and 5% (176) of governance approvals were for COVID-19 projects. The overall median time to ethics approval was 46 days (range 0-1799) pre-pandemic and 42 days (0-829) post-pandemic (p<0.001). The corresponding times for governance were 42 days (0-690) pre-pandemic and 28 days (0-716) post-pandemic (p<0.001). In the post-pandemic period, the median time for ethics approval was 22 days (0 – 804) for COVID-19 projects compared to 44 days (0 – 829) for other projects (<0.001) and the median times for governance approvals of COVID-19 projects was 19 days (0 – 333) compared to 30 days (0 – 716) for other types of projects (p<0.001). Interpretation Ethics and governance approval times were substantially reduced by interventions that targeted COVID-19 projects. For governance approval times, but not for ethics approval times, the interventions appear to have also benefitted non- COVID-19 projects.