Eligibility to Serve as Principal Investigator (PI) for IRB Protocols
Only UGA faculty and senior staff members will be eligible to serve as PI on new IRB applications; graduate and undergraduate students will have to be listed as co-PI and their faculty advisor as the PI.
Several reasons prompted the decision to revise this policy. Dr. Lee recognized the need to implement a policy that is consistent for all three compliance committees under OVPR (IACUC, IBC, and IRB). The IACUC and IBC currently do not accept applications from students. The University Provost and the OVPR 5-Year Program Review Committee, citing that there was strong support for this when they conducted a faculty survey, likewise recommended this change.
In addition to expertise and experience, an individual listed as PI must have ultimate responsibility, sufficient authority, and administrative and fiscal accountability -- qualifications that can only be satisfied by a faculty or senior staff member. A student may still have primary responsibility for the intellectual content, conduct of the research, or primary authorship in publications. This revised policy is also in keeping with the institution’s policy on PI eligibility for submission of proposals to external funding agencies.
IRB Training Requirement for Investigators
The principal investigator and all personnel engaged in the conduct of research with human subjects must complete CITI training prior to the submission of an IRB Application. It is the principal investigator’s responsibility to ensure that all engaged personnel have satisfied the IRB training requirement.
For researchers who have not submitted an IRB application in the past, a hard copy of the training certificate(s) must be included with the IRB application. If the Human Subjects Office (HSO) receives an IRB application and the training requirement has not been satisfied by all research team members, the application will be sent back to the principal investigator. View IRB Training›
