The Institutional Review Board (IRB) at the University of Missouri is a critical component of the university's Human Research Protection Program (HRPP). The IRB protects the rights and welfare of human research participants through its oversight functions, ensuring research involving human subjects is conducted ethically and in compliance with federal regulations and university policies.
After an investigator receives initial approval, the IRB has the responsibility and authority to directly observe and continue reviewing ongoing research projects, including the consent process and assessments or audits of research records. Noncompliance with regulations and protocols could jeopardize current and future grant funding from federal agencies or other sponsors.
As a reminder, please watch for these commonly missed areas of compliance:
Outdated informed consent forms.
When signing an informed consent, the most recently approved version must be used. This includes informed consent forms signed electronically or with hard copy signature.
Inability to verify that the most updated version of the informed consent was signed by participants.
Good record keeping is essential to ensure that compliance is verifiable, by the institution, federal agencies and sponsors.
IRB-approved informed consents not posted to the federal website in a timely manner.
From the Code of Federal Regulations, Protection of Human Subjects, part 46.116(h):
“For each clinical trial conducted or supported by a federal department or agency, one IRB-approved consent form used to enroll subjects must be posted by the awardee or agency conducting the trial on clinicaltrials.gov after the clinical trial is closed to recruitment, and no later than 60 days after the last study visit by any subject, as required by the protocol.”
Please see the HRPP/IRB website for additional resources, including:
For questions reach out to the IRB by email or call 573-882-3181.