Several years ago UPitt joined a national group formed at the University of California, San Francisco called the Flexibility Consortium. The goal was to identify areas of flexibility in the regulations while offering equivalent protections of human subjects.
We are pleased to announce implementation of the first recommendation which was approved on August 15, 2014 by the IRB Executive Committee. Effective immediately, the IRB will have the ability to extend the approval period for certain non-exempt research to 3 years rather than requiring annual review. The IRB will make the determination during the initial and continuing review process. In order to qualify for the extended approval period, the project must present no more than minimal risk to human subjects and must not include any of the following:
- Federal funding, including federal training and program project grants and federal no-cost extensions
- Subawards issued to the University of Pittsburgh where the prime award is federal
- FDA regulated
- Prisoners as subjects
Additional information is available in the Approval and Expiration Dates section in Chapter 8 of IRB Policies and Procedures. If you have any questions, contact us at askirb.pitt.edu.