1. The National Health and Medical Research Council Act 1992 (the NHMRC Act) establishes the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and provides for the establishment of the Council and a number of committees including Principal and Working Committees.  The Research Involving Human Embryos Act 2002 provides for the establishment of the Embryo Research Licensing Committee (ERLC), and section 13 of that Act provides that the ERLC is taken to be a Principal Committee within the meaning of the NHMRC Act.
  2. The person (the “Member”) has been appointed, or is proposed to be appointed, as a member of a Committee.  
  3. The NHMRC requires the Member to undertake to preserve and maintain the confidentiality of information to which the Member will have access by virtue of their position on a Committee.

Obligations in relation to Confidential Information

  1. You as a Member undertake to keep secret and confidential all Confidential Information and to not directly or indirectly disclose to any person, other than other Committee members, Secretariat staff and any other person approved by NHMRC, any Confidential Information. You must not input any part of a grant application, or any information from a grant application, into a natural language processing and/or artificial intelligence technology system. In giving written consent to the disclosure of Confidential Information, the NHMRC may impose such reasonable conditions as it thinks fit.
  2. Confidential Information is any information or document made available to you as a member by the Secretariat that:
    • is by its nature confidential
    • is designated by the Secretariat as confidential, or 
    • you, as a member of the Committee, knows or ought to know, is confidential.
    It does not include any information which is in the public domain or becomes public knowledge, other than by breach of confidentiality. 
  3. You as a Member undertake not to make use of any Confidential Information other than to fulfil your role as a Member of a Committee or where disclosure is required by court order or by statute.
  4. You as a Member understand and acknowledge that any unauthorised use or disclosure of Confidential Information may make you liable for prosecution under the laws of the Commonwealth including under Part 5.6 (Secrecy of Information) of the Criminal Code and s 80 of the NHMRC Act (in respect of confidential commercial information).

Return of materials 

  1. You as a Member undertake to return all Confidential Information, including any copies held in your possession (whether in hard copy or electronically, for instance on discs or memory sticks/cards), to the NHMRC on ceasing to perform your duties as a Member of a Committee and to return to the NHMRC or dispose of, all Confidential Information as otherwise directed by the NHMRC from time to time, at such times and in such manner as directed by the NHMRC.