NACOSTI regulates and assures quality in Science, Technology and Innovation Sector and advises the Government in matters related thereto. In fulfilling its mandate of assuring quality in matters of research, the Commission receives, and reviews all submitted research proposals before issuance of research licenses. However, there are proposals that require ethical review before consideration of an application for a research license.
NACOSTI has assigned the task of ethical clearance of research proposals to Institutional Scientific and Ethics Review Committees (ISERCs). These Committees are accredited by NACOSTI on the recommendation of the National Scientific and Ethics Committee (NSEC) which is established as per the provisions of section 27 of the STI Act, 2013. ISERCs are established as per paragraph 7(2) of STI (Relevance and Quality Assurance) Regulations 2014.
Currently, there are thirty-nine (39) accredited ISERCs. Sixty seven percent (26) of the committees are domiciled in universities, 18% (7) in hospitals, 8% (3) in research institutions,5% (2) jointly by a university and a hospital and lastly, 2% (1) in a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO).
This financial year 2022/2023, NACOSTI has accredited five (5) new ISERCs. TThe table below shows the newly accredited ISERCs.
| S/N | Institution | Area accredited | Institutional Logo |
| 1 | St. Paul’s University | Social and Health Sciences |  |
| 2 | Kisii Teaching and Referral Hospital | Social, Biomedical and Health Sciences |  |
| 3 | Adventist University of Africa | Public Health and Social Sciences |  |
| 4 | Meru University of Science and Technology | Health Sciences, Agriculture, Animal Science, Social Science, Biomedical Science and Environmental Sciences |  |
| 5 | Tangaza University College | Humanities and Social Sciences |  |
Institutions who undertake research are encouraged to host an ISERC as this aids their stakeholders to receive ethical review for their research proposals expeditiously.