A 5-year review of research ethics applications in a tertiary health and educational institution in Nigeria

Background: African contribution to global research output is said to be low. Poor funding and poor skills in grant writing have been suggested as important factors for this situation.

Objectives: Applications for research ethics clearance in a hospital were reviewed to have an overview of the planned studies and the proportion of them that attracted national and international funding.

Methods: A review of all applications for ethical clearance received by the institutional review board of a university teaching hospital at Ile-Ife, Nigeria, from 2016 to 2020. They were analysed according to study nature, scope, purpose, and sponsorship using descriptive statistics presented as frequency tables and charts.

Results: A total of 878 applications were reviewed. There were 803 (91.5%) applications for local, 45 (5.1%) for national multicentre, and 30 (3.4%) for international multicentre studies. Applications for medical fellowship were 352 (40.0%) while 208 (23.8%) were from academic staff for non-degree research. There were 610 (69.5%) applications for self-sponsored studies. Only 18 (2.0%) and 26 (3.0%) received sponsorship from national and international donor agencies, respectively.

Conclusions: Local studies formed the bulk of the submissions for ethics clearance. National and international donor funding of research is abysmally low in this Nigerian tertiary institution studied.