Effective January 25, 2018, NIH expected that all sites participating in multi-site studies involving non-exempt human subjects research funded by the NIH, would use a single Institutional Review Board (sIRB) to conduct the ethical review required for the protection of human subjects. This change was designed to avoid duplicate review by multiple sites within the study. More information on this NIH policy can be found at: https://grants.nih.gov/policy/clinical-trials/single-irb-policy-multi-site-research.htm
The sIRB requirement of the revised Common Rule goes into effect January 20, 2020. This will apply to IRB oversight for most federally-funded collaborative research projects located in the U.S., and will be required to use a single IRB (commercial, academic, or hospital-based).
We will continue to keep you informed of our progress regarding compliance with the revised rule and provide guidance on implementation as it becomes available. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns regarding this, or any aspect of our human research protection program.