Dear Editor,
Ethics Committees in health care are instrumental in upholding ethical standards within the life sciences, ensuring the protection of human dignity and integrity.1 However, they encounter challenges pertaining to time constraints and limited logistical resources.2 In Portugal, since 2018, the mandate for an Ethics Committee in human research institutions has introduced a degree of variability in resource allocation and methods of ethical evaluation. This has led to increased complexity in national-level projects, which often require approvals from several local ethics committees. Furthermore, with the implementation of local health units, the number of ethics committees is set to rise from five to potentially 39 across mainland Portugal.

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