You may request that Rhodes IRB approve a research study that includes non-affiliated research personnel through a similar Reliance Agreement. This time, Rhodes will be the reviewing institution and one or more other institutions will be the relying institutions.
Reliance—When one or more relying institutions choose to accept IRB review and oversight for a research project from another institution’s reviewing IRB. In these situations, the reviewing IRB provides IRB review and oversight for conduct of the research at the relying institution(s).
Reviewing IRB – The IRB that will be reviewing research from all participating sites
Relying institution – institution that agrees to accept IRB review and oversight from a reviewing IRB
Rhodes-affiliated research personnel - research personnel who are Rhodes College faculty, staff, and students.
Non-affiliated research personnel - research personnel who are not faculty, staff, or students of Rhodes College.
How it Works
Rhodes IRB approves Reliance Agreements on a case-by-case basis. If you ask Rhodes College IRB to review research for non-affiliated research personnel or external sites, you must have at least one Rhodes-affiliated research person on your research team. This person agrees to take on additional responsibilities. A Rhodes study team making the review request is responsible for:
- Compiling the required information for the Rhodes College IRB, including the research proposal, informed consent forms, and evidence of CITI training for each researcher, etc.
- Contact the IRBs at partnering institutions to request that Rhodes be the reviewing IRB on the project, ask for their approval and/or any documentation that they need, and request a signed Reliance Agreement.
- Requesting that Rhodes IRB approve the proposal to be the reviewing IRB on the project.
- communicating IRB decisions and approved documents back to the sites and research personnel as needed, including amendments and updates to the protocol.