The Global Forum on Bioethics in Research annually convenes a number of researchers, bioethicists and stakeholders with a shared interest in the ethics of conducting research in low and middle-income countries (LMIC). It provides a useful platform to discuss ethical issues that affect research practice in different scenarios, promoting ethically conducted research, global development for health research ethics and partnerships between the global north and south. As participant of the last three meetings, in this article the author analyzes the main ethical issues that were discussed in this forum, namely "Emerging epidemic infections and experimental medical treatments" (Annecy, France, 2015); "Ethics of research in pregnancy" (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2016), and "The ethics of alternative clinical trial designs and methods in LMIC research" (Bangkok, Thailand, 2017). Local research ethics committees are not well prepared to face the new ethical challenges associated with research conducted in emergency situations or in pregnant women, or to evaluate new methods, such as alternative clinical trial designs (cluster randomized trials, adaptive platforms, or controlled human infection models, among others). According to this scenario, research ethics committees should be trained to carefully assess the risks and benefits of approving this type of research. In this context, it is necessary to harmonize local regulations with the new international standards in research ethics.