The Secretariat
The HRCDC secretariat was established in 2019 as a business unit within the Health Research Board (HRB), Ireland’s leading agency responsible for supporting and funding health research, generating health information and promoting the use of evidence in policy and practice. The HRB supports and enables the operational and strategic work of the Secretariat.
The Secretariat’s primary objective is to support the HRCDC to deliver on its mandate in a manner that engenders trust, transparency, and public confidence.
It acts as the principal point of contact for the research community, the public, and various stakeholders on behalf of the HRCDC. It actively collaborates with both current and potential researcher applicants, providing the necessary guidance and support in order to facilitate the consent declaration application process.
The Secretariat is tasked with overseeing the complete application process through which researchers seek consent declarations from the HRCDC. This includes receiving and triaging applications, assembling application packs for HRCDC review, and issuing decision letters on behalf of the HRCDC.
It also oversees management of the portfolio of 75 live consent declarations for research studies. This entails tracking actionable data protection safeguarding measures that are required by the HRCDC and that reflect the fundamental principles of the Health Research Regulations 2018.
The Secretariat also organises and provides information on upcoming events of interest to the HRCDC, raises awareness, conducts training on topics of interest, and provides updates on relevant areas of health research and data protection both from within Ireland and from other countries in Europe.
In its role the Secretariat:
- Supports the HRCDC in all aspects of its work.
- Responsible for the application process which to enable researchers seek a consent declaration from the HRCDC.
- Act as the central point of contact and help desk for the health research community;
- Publishes minutes
- Provides decision letters to Applicants
- Monitors consent declarations made
- Oversees the standard operating procedures of the HRCDC
- Coordinates training and professional development activities for the HRCDC
- Supports the HRCDC in all aspects of its work.
- Responsible for the application process which to enable researchers seek a consent declaration from the HRCDC.
- Act as the central point of contact and help desk for the health research community;
- Publishes minutes
- Provides decision letters to Applicants
- Monitors consent declarations made
- Oversees the standard operating procedures of the HRCDC
- Coordinates training and professional development activities for the HRCDC
Our Profiles
Bríd Burke
Programme Manager - Secretariat
April 2023 - present
Bríd joined the Secretariat to the Health Research Consent Declaration Committee, as Programme Manager in April 2023. Prior to taking up the role, Bríd was a Senior Scientific officer with the Irish National Accreditation board (INAB) with the responsibility for policy development in the healthcare area and scheme manager for laboratory accreditation. Prior to her role in INAB, Bríd worked as a quality manager in a number of multinational industries, such as medical device manufacturing and electronics manufacturing.
Jonathan Barrett
March 2019 - present
Jonny joined the Secretariat of the Health Research Consent Declaration Committee as a Project Officer in March 2019 and since then has been extensively involved in the establishment of the HRCDC and management of the consent declaration application process.
Previously, Jonny worked for a non-profit organisation, on a range of projects across different government Departments and other agencies in the areas of health, mental health and children and young people as well as internal GDPR related work. Jonny has a BSc in Social Policy from the University of Ulster, an Advance Diploma in Medical Law from the Kings Inns and has previously completed PRINCE 2 project management training.
Caroline Byrne
January 2019 - Present
Caroline joined the Secretariat of the Health Research Consent Declaration Committee as an Administrative Assistant, in January 2019. Caroline has 20 years’ experience working for companies as an Administrative Assistant/Administrator based in Dublin and Canada.