Institutional Review Board
What is an Institutional Review Board (IRB)?
An Institutional Review Board (IRB) is a group of people formally designated to review and monitor research involving human subjects. The purpose of the IRB is to protect the rights and welfare of individuals who are participating as subjects in the research. The IRB has the authority to approve, disapprove, and require modifications to research projects involving human subjects. Once approved, the IRB must monitor the progress of the ongoing research, prospectively approve modifications, and, if necessary to protect subjects, suspend a research project.
Why IRB?
The Andrews University Institutional Review Board (IRB) is endorsed with the responsibility of overseeing that all research involving the use of human subjects is conducted under ethical and scientific sound principles that ensure the rights and welfare of human subjects recruited to participate in such studies are safeguarded and that the study will yield outcomes that are to the good of society, in compliance with federal regulations and its operating policy. For more information about the origins of IRB, please visit The Belmont Report and the OHRP Guidelines
Membership
The board comprises individuals of varying disciplines from within the university and community who are experienced and knowledgeable about the kinds of research done at the university. Such diversity ensures a comprehensive approach to protecting the rights and welfare of human participants, and a complete and adequate review of research proposals is achieved.
Member Login: For those already registered in the IRB system.
IRB Categories
Proposals may be reviewed under one of the three categories: Exempt, Expedited, and Full.
Exempt: Studies are exempt from full review if they have the following characteristics as described under the Protection of Human Subjects Title 45 Code of Regulation part 46 (45 CFR 46.101).
Expedited: Studies will be categorized Expedited if all of the following characteristics as described in the Protection of Human Subjects Title 45 Code of Regulation part 46 (45 CFR 46.111) are satisfied.
When some or all of the subjects are likely to be vulnerable to coercion or undue influence, such as children, prisoners, pregnant women, mentally disabled persons, or economically or educationally disadvantaged persons additional safeguards have been included in the study to protect the rights and welfare of these subjects.
Full: Studies that have risk to human subjects. All studies that do not meet the Exempt and Expedited reviews will be considered under Full category.
IRB Review Process
Full reviews are usually discussed at the full board sessions, while expedited and exempt reviews are evaluated by the chair, research compliance administrator or/and another designee(s) from among members of the IRB.
The board meets once monthly; usually the second Monday of every month. For more details about the meeting schedules please visit IRB Meetings Schedule site.