Background: In this article we will describe the process that preceded the establishment of regional committees for medical research ethics in 1985. We will also take a look at the difficult initial period experienced by the committees in the eastern and southern regions.
Material and methods: We have examined the material that has been submitted to the National Archives by the Research Council of Norway, the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Education and Research, as well as the records of the Regional Committees for Medical and Health Research Ethics South-East.
Results: From the early 1970s the Norwegian Medical Association played a key role, for example by launching the proposal for "nationally dispersed committees" in 1977. There was widespread consensus that such committees were desirable, but everybody assumed that they would be funded by somebody else. As a result, the simplest model was chosen. The full set of regional committees was not established until 1987, and even more time passed before they were granted the funding that could ensure appropriate processing of cases. This was only achieved after the adoption of the Research Ethics Act in 2006.
Interpretation: Unsolved financial issues were the key reason why this process was so prolonged. The organisational model proposed by the Norwegian Medical Association in 1977 is fairly similar to the one that the Health Research Act brought into place in 2009.