The CEP-Conep System in 2020: confronting COVID-19, challenges and lessons learned

This paper presents the structuring dimensions of the CEP-Conep System in order to understand the actions promoted by the National Research Ethics Commission in response to demands for the processing and ethical analysis of research protocols related to COVID-19 in 2020. Based on CEP-Conep System public documents, an assessment of legislation, from 1988 to 2020, and its extension in terms of the number of Committees, users, and protocols, from 2012 to 2020 was presented. The minutes of Conep's Ordinary Meetings (RO), for 2020, of a confidential nature, were analyzed, to verify adaptations to the pandemic. At the end of 2020, the System had 844 Committees, 854,741 users, and 701,791 analyzed protocols. The Commission centralized the analysis of COVID-19 protocols, in January 2020, and promoted three decentralizations, as more knowledge was generated, with vaccine protocols for COVID-19 remaining centralized. The history of the CEP-Conep System provided ballast for the adoption of management, educational and communication measures that accelerated the approval of protocols and made the process transparent. The absence of indicators made it impossible to evaluate the performance in 2020, which was apparently satisfactory.