Fostering Accessibility and Inclusivity in Research (FAIR)
Our mission is to nurture inclusive and equitable practices across the Northwestern University human research landscape in alignment with the Belmont Principle of Justice. We will achieve this by partnering with groups across the University's human research protection program to create and share resources in order to implement these practices.
The Northwestern IRB recognizes the importance of inclusive and equitable practices in all phases of the research process. We encourage teams to think holistically, so equity is ‘baked into’ the research process. Increasing inclusivity and equity in research design is both good science and good ethics.
We encourage researchers to bring in various stakeholders to help determine the kinds of projects the community wants. Researchers should be thinking about how to conduct projects with communities, rather than on communities. It is important to integrate the patient/community voice in your project. How can the research process be bi-directional with the community from the beginning? How are you sharing results with the community? All of these issues relate to the Belmont Principle of Justice.
We also recommend you take a look at Northwestern's Global Marketing and Communications Editorial Guidelines for Inclusive Language!
Community-Based Participatory Research