The functions of the National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI) as outlined under section 6 (1) of the Science, Technology and Innovation (ST&I) Act include among others; Approval of all Scientific Research; Register and accredit Research Institutions; and Assurance of Relevance and Quality of ST&I programmes in research institutions.

National Scientific and Ethics Committee (NSEC) was created by NACOSTI to offer guidelines and create accreditation standards for ISERCs to adhere to for their accreditation process to be successful. NSEC is committed to enabling and supporting ethical research in Kenya. It protects the rights, safety, dignity and wellbeing of research participants.

We have a duty to provide an efficient and robust ethics review service that maximises Kenya’s competitiveness for health research and maximises the return from investment in Kenya, while protecting participants and researchers.

In fulfilling its mandate of assuring quality in research, NACOSTI has delegated the task of ethical clearance in research proposals to Institutional Ethics Review Committees (ISERCs) to National Scientific and Ethics Committee (NSEC).