| Summary: | Research ethics should sit at the very core of knowledge production in universities and other research institutions. It is the critical facet that foreshadows decisions as to whether research proposals have ethical merits, how researchers engage with and apply ethical principles to their work, and in shaping the output. As a result of its role in knowledge production, the university, as an institution, has since the 19th century played a key role as a site of scientific and social innovation. Governments and other institutions routinely cite university publications as policy justification. This article charts the current and potential role of ethical review committees in Global North universities in supporting ethical research relevant to Global South contexts. This calls for attention to be paid to how research ethics is defined and whose work is included in its definition. This article examines societal inequity resulting from histories of colonial thinking in the Global North and how this has affected its universities, for example, in terms of whose voices are heard and whose values are valued. It looks toward how decolonial approaches can be taken to recalibrate research ethics for epistemic justice. It particularly draws on examples of research in African contexts, drawing on the first author's particular experience and perspectives, and draws from the second author's commitment to contributing to practical responses by ethical committees and those producing ethical guidance in the Global North.
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