National Research Ethics Service

REC Membership

Each Research Ethics Committee (REC) consists of between seven and 18 volunteer members.

At least one-third of the members must be ‘lay’. Lay members are people whose main personal or professional interest is not in a research area. The remainder of the committee are expert members, who are specialists including doctors, other healthcare professionals and academics.

Membership can also include a category known as ‘lay plus’. This category excludes anyone who has been involved in clinical research other than as a participant.

Interested in becoming an NRES Committee Member?

You can find out if any Research Ethics Committees in your region are recruiting new members by contacting the Operations Coordinator.

Email the Operations Coordinator

REC members often have the sort of experience which will be useful in scrutinising the ethical aspects of a research proposal. For example, they might be patients, members of the public, nurses, GPs, hospital doctors, statisticians, pharmacists and academics, as well as people with specific ethical expertise gained through a legal, philosophical or theological background.

Information paper on membership of research ethics committees, v4.0 (pdf, 48KB)
Issued May 2008

REC members receive special training in ethical review and have the chance to debate challenging issues. They give freely of their time and expertise (although they are reimbursed for their expenses).

You can read more about becoming a REC member or participating in research, in the Patients and the public section.