Skip to Content

National Statement Navigator

This tool is part of the Iris Ethics Knowledge Base; you can find a directory of all articles here.

Welcome to the National Statement Navigator! This is an interactive tool to help you determine what ethics review pathway is appropriate for your project or research study. It is based on the guidance of the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2025 Edition), and the Ethical Considerations in Quality Assurance and Evaluation Activities (2014 Edition), both published by the National Health and Medical Research Council. The following is intended as practical guidance and does not constitute legal advice. If you have questions or feedback please feel free to contact us.

How to use this tool:

Each page of the tool presents a question that you must answer. You should answer each question honestly, thinking about the full scope of your project or study. It's okay if you don't know the answer; if you click on "I Don't Know" it will open one of our resources in a new window that helps you to understand the question better. We've also provided a bit more information below the question to help you decide.

By selecting answers to each question, you'll be presented with more questions, or directed to one of our review services. There are only at most 10 questions, and in most cases there are far fewer (usually 2-4).

While this navigator tries to cover off most research and evaluation projects, we know it can't cover everything. If you're not sure if and how your project fits, please feel free to contact us and we can have a confidential chat about your project.

Question 1 

Do my activities include a foreseeable risk to stakeholders of:

  • Physical harm
  • Psychological harm
  • Devaluation of personal worth
  • Cultural harm
  • Social harm
  • Economic harm
  • Legal harm?
a wooden block spelling yes on a white background

Yes

a wooden block with the word no on it

No

brown wooden blocks on white surface

I Don't Know

More information

What is harm? 

Harm refers to any negative impact that affects the well-being of participants. This can be physical, psychological, social, or economic in nature, as well as take form in other ways. Harm is often considered more severe and long-lasting compared to discomfort. Examples of harm include physical injury, emotional trauma, social stigmatisation, or financial loss.

What is a "foreseeable" risk?

Unfortunately, the National Statement is silent on a working definition of “foreseeable”. However, as the National Statement primarily draws its ethical basis from professional norms, philosophical principles (especially utilitarianism), and common law principles, we can infer a working definition from these sources.

Australian tort law outlines a concept of “foreseeable harm”, namely whether the specific harm could reasonably be anticipated by someone of normal competence with the activities undertaken.

Where can I find out more?

We've written an article on understanding harm and discomfort in evaluation here.


This page was last updated on 10 September 2026.

Was this helpful? We'd appreciate your feedback!

This article makes reference to the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research 2025. It is intended as practical guidance and does not constitute legal advice.

AI Disclosure: Resources in this library were prepared using Large Language Models with input from Iris Ethics staff who guided the scope and design. Subsequent revisions and final versions were developed and approved by Iris Ethics staff.