News & Announcements

The Biomedical Protocol template, Social Behavioral Protocol template, Local Protocol Addendum template, Investigator Manual, and various other documents were updated this month.

As a part of the Northwestern University IRB Office’s continued support of the research enterprise, and to help fund services provided by the IRB, the IRB Office charges fees to review industry sponsored research.

The Institutional Review Board Office (IRB) updated the Informed Consent webpage to incorporate electronic consent information. The webpage has also been updated to clarify the different types of consent waivers and when each type of consent waiver is applicable.

We are pleased to announce that the IRB Office has updated the website to include several timely revisions to documents related to research with children. Notably, revisions do not reflect any changes in policy, practices or regulatory criteria, but are geared to improve readability/accessibility of documents.

In alignment with the recent communication from VPR Milan Mrksich regarding the State of Illinois Phase 5 re-opening and lifted restrictions for vaccinated University community members, the IRB Office has updated policies for PIs and research teams conducting on-campus human research activities.

As of Sunday, May 16th, the sites section of the eIRB+ application now includes a list of all affiliated NMHC locations. If a new application or modification has the NMHC box checked, an ‘NMHC sites’ question will populate to allow research teams the opportunity to indicate the specific site. This update is only applicable when NMHC is as a study site.

On October 12, 2020, WCG announced the unification of its five industry-leading IRBs – Western IRB (WIRB), Copernicus Group IRB (CGIRB), Midlands IRB (MLIRB), New England IRB (NEIRB), and Aspire IRB – into the single WCG IRB brand.

The IRB Office has new guidance for the following activities. These guidance documents can be found under Resources, within the Guidance Documents page: - Notification of Study Participants: MORE

The IRB Office recently updated documents per the Huron HRPP Toolkit update. Relevant updates have been made to the Biomedical Protocol template, as well as the English Short Form Consent template. MORE

Due to the evolving COVID-19 outbreak, the Office for Research and the Institutional Review Board Office are providing guidance related to human participant-related research visits. MORE