A Busy Time of Year for You and for Us

With the new academic year upon us, the Harvard research community is actively planning new research projects. This means that the HUA IRB is a busy office during the fall months. We strive to efficiently serve the research community. However, please know that we are receiving a high volume of submissions currently. We encourage all members of the Harvard research community to plan ahead to ensure a timely review. We have the following resources available to help you do so:

• HUA IRB Metrics:  We post IRB review metrics on our website each quarter.  The Report on Operations contains information todemonstrate our effectiveness, efficiency, compliance, and outreach activities.  In the section "Measures of Efficiency", we list the IRB staff review times as well as the overall review time for the most frequent review types.
• Training and Resources: We’ve compiled answers to common questions in our FAQ section, topics for guidance on many common research study scenarios, definitions, and an overview of exempt categories.
• Speeding Up Your Application: We’ve put together some tips on common issues that we see that might slow down the review process.
• Our IRB Lifecycle Guide will take you step-by-step through everything you need to know on How to Submit an IRB Proposal for review, What to Expect When You're Expecting IRB Review, Researcher Responsibilities After Review, and Closing Your Study at Harvard.
• Issues with the ESTR website can be addressed by ESTR Support