For  researchers, lab personnel and animal care staff:

Take a look at this video for a discussion on how these agencies approach conflicts of interest.

A recent National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) YouTube Tuesday video, “Overview of NIH/NSF Conflict of Interest Guidelines”, provides some guidance and information. 

See http://www.youtube.com/user/ncura1959 for the video.

View an archive of presenters from the NSF Office of the Inspector General and HHS Office of Research Integrity (ORI) at the May 6, 2013 Plagiarism Workshop, sponsored by Colorado State University. 

The Institutional Review Board (IRB),  the formally designated UMBC committee to approve, monitor, and review research involving humans is currently accepting applications from students to join for academic year 2013-2014.  Students are considered full members of the board. Student members review research protocols, attend meetings, and vote on issues with the aim to protect the rights and welfare of the research subjects. The board typically meets 5 times during the academic year: October, December, February, April and June. Meetings are on Mondays from 10 am-12 pm.

A reminder about the need to do entity background checks for anything being shipped overseas.  The Office for Research Protections and Compliance has access to a dynamic database to verify if entities who are to receive shipments are restricted.  Entities with “University” or “Institute” in their name may be restricted in terms of export control regulations.  The ORPC can often complete the check within a few minutes.  

Be safe. Contact Dean Drake or Tim Sparklin if you are participating in shipping anything overseas. 

For more information, go to our Export Control Management site.

The NIH Office for Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW) is seeking input from the public regarding questions, issues and/or concerns they may have with the 2013 edition of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals. This is the first update to the guidelines since 2007. OLAW wants institutions to use the 2013 Guidelines when reviewing research projects as soon as possible and “expects full implementation” of these guidelines in new and continuing research projects after September 1, 2013. 

Public comments must be submitted electronically at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/olaw/2013avmaguidelines_comments/add.cfm?ID=32. 

Comments must be received on or before May 31, 2013. The NIH may make the comments available on the OLAW website.

Please use the most up to date forms and applications when submitting for IRB review and approval. Using older forms may delay the processing of your application (and causing minor headaches for the Office for Research Protections and Compliance staff!).

The direct link to these forms is: http://www.umbc.edu/research/ORPC/IRB_formsandtemplates.html