The NIH Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW) announced this month that effective October 1, 2015, OLAW will extend its oversight of animal research and teaching activities funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).   This means institutions receiving NSF funds for research and teaching involving vertebrate animals will require IACUC review and approval for all animal care and use aspects. It also means that institutions must report situations involving NSF‐supported animal activities to OLAW as required by the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.

Procedures to review and approve of all animal research by the IACUC at UMBC, regardless of funding, has always been in place.  UMBC will now follow the reporting process for noncompliance or serious deviations from approved protocols for investigators funded by NSF as well as NIH.

For more information go to, http://research.umbc.edu/federalmaryland-regulations-and-guidelines/ or contact compliance@umbc.edu.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) have established training requirements in Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) for programs supporting research training, career development, or research education.

NSF expects UMBC to be able to verify that graduate and post-doctoral students receiving NSF funds, either in salary support or stipends to conduct research, receive RCR training. The RCR training requirement applies to all proposals submitted to NSF; excluded are proposals for conference, symposium, workshop, or travel submissions.   The RCR modules in CITI will assist students in meeting this need.

NIH requires the submission of an instructional plan addressing the responsible conduct of research for  any NIH training, career development award (individual or institutional), research education grant, and dissertation research grant , including D, F, K, R, T, U awards.  Online courses, such as the CITI RCR modules, can be a valuable supplement but they are not considered adequate by NIH to address the RCR requirements. Training plans must also include a minimum of eight substantive hours of face-to-face instruction in RCR topics. PIs must carefully review the Notice of Award to determine the RCR requirements for the specific award and ensure that they have a plan in place to meet the RCR requirements.

PIs are asked to complete the same RCR training as his/her students and postdoctoral researchers working on the project. Although this  action is not specifically required, both NSF and NIH has made it clear that they expect RCR to include a strong mentoring component, so it is important that PIs are familiar with the RCR training that their students and postdoctoral researchers have taken and can discuss it with them.

And, as a reminder, please be aware of the UMBC Graduate School's notice for RCR training.

For more information, please review the ORPC's site on RCR.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) has been approved by the NIH Office of Biotechnology Activities. The IBC is responsible for ensuring that all recombinant DNA or synthetic nucleic acid moleculesresearch as well as research with transgenic animals and biohazardous materials (such as bacterium, fungi, algae, potential infectious agents and select agents) conducted at UMBC and sponsored by external/internal funding be performed in compliance with the NIH Guidelines and with proper concern for the safety of research personnel, the environment, and the surrounding communities.

It is also the responsibility of the investigator to ensure that the staff listed on the protocol have sufficient knowledge and are sufficiently trained and documented to safely perform the responsibilities for which they have been assigned.  Information on biosafety training and training registration can be accessed using the following link: (http://research.umbc.edu/education-training/).

The IBC will meet:                             Applications must be submitted to ORPC no later than:

September 16, 2015                                      August 1, 2015

December 9, 2015                                         November 1, 2015

March 16, 2016                                              February 1, 2016

June 15, 2016                                                 May 1, 2016

For further information and assistance in preparing IBC applications, please contact us at 5-2737 or compliance@umbc.edu.