The purpose of this document is to provide guidelines for the Provincial Health Research Committees (PHRCs). The primary purpose of providing these guidelines is to promote a common approach and shared vision for the co-ordination and management of research within government and to introduce a measure of consistency and standardisation across the provinces, particularly in terms of the roles and functions of the PHRCs. Also significant in this document is the relationship between the National Health Research Committee (NHRC) and the PHRCs on the one hand, and that between the National Health Research Ethics Council (NHREC) and the PHRCs on the other hand. The document is aimed at clarifying the grey areas that have been observed in the functioning of the PHRCs with respect to their role pertaining to health research conducted in the provincial health facilities.