Research Committees
Under Federal Regulations, certain classes of activity require formal review before they may be undertaken by employees or students of the university.
These classes of work include:
- vertebrate animals
- living human subjects (including survey research or questionnaires)
- recombinant DNA, infectious agents, direct/indirect contact with wild-caught animals that may harbor infectious agents, or any human fluid or tissue.
- Please note: It has been determined by W&M that oversight of Select Agents falls under the purview of the Environmental Health and Safety Office. See a complete list of Select Agents and Toxins.
- Questions in regard to Select Agents should be directed to [[tbelback,Teresa Belback]], Director of EH&S. VIMS and Eastern Shore Laboratory personnel need to contact VIMS Director of Safety and Environmental Programs, Tom Grose, before the purchase of any Select Agent.
- Please note: It has been determined by W&M that oversight of Select Agents falls under the purview of the Environmental Health and Safety Office. See a complete list of Select Agents and Toxins.
- radioactive material
By law, reviews of work in any of the above classes must be performed by duly constituted committees appointed by, and reporting to, senior administrators of the university. To enable these reviews, investigators must submit proposals to perform work involving these regulated activities. The proposals must describe the detailed, step-by-step protocols and procedures that will be used in the performance of the work. These protocols must be updated once each year to permit continuation of the work (i.e. continuing reviews). Also, any changes in the authorized proposal must be submitted via an amendment during the period of approval. Additionally, please note that this sort of review is required for survey work that may be done year-after-year in scheduled classes or laboratories.
We want to emphasize that W&M policy mandates that those individuals who will perform, or intend to perform, a particular activity involving these regulated areas may not judge for themselves whether that activity is exempt from formal review. Therefore, whenever you have any doubt about whether your work might require review, the correct approaches are either to submit that work via the appropriate SPARCS module or contact your Committee Chair.
Research submitted to an external funding agency requires compliance committee approval prior to the Office of Sponsored Programs creating a fiscal account for the research activity. The PI must provide OSP with protocol title and date of approval.
