Is The IRB Office Open? What If It Closes?

The IRB Office will begin working remotely starting Monday, March 16th. All IRB staff have the availability to work remotely, so IRB operations will be only minimally impacted. If you need to reach your IRB Administrator, we suggest sending a comment through ESTR or reaching out with a direct email. Staff contact information may be found here – https://cuhs.harvard.edu/people

We have also moved all regularly scheduled outreach and trainings to virtual meetings as much as possible. Check the IRB website regularly for updates.

What do I do if I need to submit a change to my research, report new information, or start new research and the IRB office is not in operation?

Complete closure of the Harvard IRB’s would be an extremely rare occurrence as all Harvard IRB offices use an electronic submission system, can work remotely, and can hold an IRB meeting virtually. However, if the Harvard IRB offices are not in operation, the Harvard IRB’s (Harvard University Area and Harvard Longwood Area) will pool resources to ensure that IRB review will occur. As the Harvard IRB’s have initiated the Harvard Master Reliance Agreement, researchers from any area of Harvard would be able to receive review from any Harvard IRB should this dire situation occur.

As the COVID-19 situation evolves, we will keep you updated on next steps as it relates to ensuring IRB review for all Harvard researchers.