The SIDCER-FERCAP Foundation

The Forum for Ethical Review Committees in the Asian and Western Pacific Region (FERCAP) was conceived in Bangkok, Thailand on 12 January 2000 after much thought and deliberation among a group of bioethicists and medical experts with the objective of fostering an improved understanding and better implementation of ethical review of behavioral and biomedical researches in the region. FERCAP is the result of the realization that ethics requires collective wisdom and there is need for a systems approach to address important health research issues in Asia and the Western Pacific.

FERCAP is affiliated with and holds office at the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences (FAHS), Thammasat University (TU). It is a project of the World Health Organization (WHO) Special Training and Research Programme in Tropical Diseases (TDR) and it is a regional forum under the umbrella of the Strategic Initiative for Developing Capacity in Ethical Review (SIDCER).

• To improve communication among ethics committees (ECs) reviewing health research in the region;

• To organize international meetings and symposia;

• To assist with the adoption and implementation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for ethical review in the region, taking into consideration the WHO Operational Guidelines for Ethics Committees Reviewing Biomedical Research;

• To facilitate training and education opportunities for health research stakeholders in the region;

• To coordinate regional communication about ethical review of research with WHO and other international organizations involved in ethical review.

Towards capacity building of stakeholders and quality improvement of ECs in the Asian and Western Pacific Region, FERCAP has the following major programs/projects:

• International Annual Conference

• Training Programs [Human Participant Protection Course (HPPC); Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) Development Course; and Surveying and Evaluating Ethical Review Practices Course];

• Networking [SIDCER, WHO-TDR, WHO South-East Asia Regional Office (SEARO), WHO Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO), WHO-TDR Clinical Coordination and Training Center (CCTC), and other national, regional, and international institutions];