OVPR – News

BRANY IRB Reminder

This is a reminder that certain new studies (as noted below) should be submitted to BRANY IRB instead of the UConn IRB.

  • Externally funded research (including when the award is expected but is pending)
  • Multisite Research/External Investigators: Studies that involve more than 2 external sites or external investigators/staff for which single IRB (by UConn/BRANY) is being requested. PLEASE NOTE: This refers to collaborating researchers/study personnel, not facilities that may be sites where research activities occur.
    • What is meant by “Single IRB (by UConn/BRANY is being requested”?
      • This refers to a situation where the UConn study team is requesting that the external sites/personnel cede IRB review to UConn and that UConn/BRANY serve as the IRB of record for these sites. If the external sites will have their home IRB review the study, then those sites would not satisfy the more than 2 external sites requirement. Please note that single IRB review is required for most federally-funded studies.
    • What should I do if an external IRB is planning to serve as the single IRB of record for a multisite study where I will be engaged in human subjects research?
  • If an external IRB will be the single IRB of record for your multisite study, please complete the External Involvement/Reliance Intake Form for Non-UConn Research Sites (found on the IRB-Reliance – General) webpage and email it to irb-reliance@uconn.edu. The UConn IRB’s reliance team will help you to facilitate a reliance agreement between UConn and the reviewing IRB. If another IRB will be the single IRB of record, the study should not be submitted to BRANY.

Instructions, forms, and templates for submissions to BRANY IRB are available on our website under the tab for IRB Reliance. If you are unsure which IRB to apply to, or have questions about the process, please reach out to the IRB Reliance Team at irb-reliance@uconn.edu.

March Remote RCR Training 3/26

The Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Program within Research Integrity & Compliance in the OVPR hosts monthly remote RCR training sessions. For our March remote event, we will be discussing several case studies. This 1-hour event will count towards the 8-hour in person requirement for NIH, however all those who conduct research are strongly encouraged to attend!

For more details about RCR requirements, please visit our RCR Program website.

For questions, please contact Research Compliance Monitor, Ellen Ciesielski or Karen Moré, Director of Research Compliance.

What: March RCR remote training session featuring case study discussions

When: Tuesday, March 26th from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Where: Remote WebEx Registration Link

March RCR Training

Calling All Human Subjects Research Staff! Please join the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Office TODAY at noon for our March in-person RCR training session with a focus on clinical and social researchers! This 1.5-hour event will count towards the 8-hour in person requirement for NIH, but we highly encourage anyone conducting human subjects research to join us! No registration required. Snacks provided! See you in the library!

 

What: March RCR in-person training, “The Research Clinic”

When: Today, Wednesday, March 13th from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Where: Babbidge Library, Class of ’47 Classroom

 

This month, we will be highlighting the importance of appropriately protecting research participants and avoiding research misconduct. We will meet in the library to view the Office of Research Integrity’s (ORI) interactive movie: “The Research Clinic.” The movie is designed as a “choose your own adventure”-type experience to allow participants to work through some common pitfalls and challenges in a low-risk environment. 

 

For questions, please contact Ellen Ciesielski, Research Compliance Monitor, or Karen Moré, Director of Research Compliance. For more details about RCR requirements, please visit our RCR Office website.

 

IRB Virtual Office Hours for March

Research Integrity & Compliance (RIC) will be hosting virtual office hours via Webex for students and faculty to offer guidance on IRB submissions and human subjects regulations.  Late afternoon/early evening appointments are offered to support availability of students and faculty researchers.

 

RIC staff are available to answer questions for research teams and faculty and student investigators who have questions about submitting to the IRB, human subjects regulations, post approval support, or general guidance on IRB processes.

 

Virtual office hours will be held on the following dates and times:

 

March:

Tuesday March 19, 2024, from 3:00pm-6:30pm

Wednesday March 20, 2024, from 11:30am-2:30pm

 

 

Please use the following Nexus link to sign up for an open meeting slot to schedule an appointment:

 

https://nexus.uconn.edu/secure_per/schedule1.php?stser=4475

 

For questions related to the sessions, please contact Joan Levine at joan.levine@uconn.edu

InfoEd IRB Module Clean Up

In preparation for the implementation of improvements to the InfoEd IRB module, the UConn IRB office has initiated a project to identify and administratively close out studies that are no longer active and those for which IRB approval has expired. Study teams may receive notifications as we go through this process. Most of the correspondence will be notification of an administrative closure which should be retained with your study records. However, please review the correspondence because we will be asking investigators who have a study with a recent lapse in approval to reply and indicate whether they intend to continue/submit a continuation.

The IRB office is actively working on improvements to our forms, templates, and guidance. Please visit our IRB Submissions, Forms & Templates page prior to creating a submission to ensure that you are using the most current versions of our forms and templates.

Additional messages about the InfoEd IRB module updates will be forthcoming.

If you have any questions, please contact irb@uconn.edu.

Reminder – When New Studies go to BRANY IRB

The UConn IRB office would like to remind study teams that new externally funded studies and studies with more than 2 collaborating sites or investigators/study personnel should now be submitted to BRANY IRB after an administrative review by the IRB Office to validate consistency with UConn requirements. Please note that this includes both faculty and student research. For more information, including a process overview and BRANY-specific protocol and consent templates, please visit the following IRB webpage: https://ovpr.uconn.edu/brany-irb/.

 

We would also like to clarify that collaborating sites refers to universities and other organizations who are engaged in the research. The term “Collaborating sites” is not intended to encompass external facilities (e.g., K-12 schools) or spaces (e.g., lab space) who have agreed to provide access to their facilities/space for research activities but are not engaged in the research itself.

 

For examples of scenarios when an organization or individual would and would not be engaged and for more information on engagement refer to ”Engagement of Institutions in Human Subjects Research.” If you are uncertain whether an individual, facility, or organization is engaged in research, please contact irb-reliance@uconn.edu.

 

The IRB office is actively working on improvements to our forms, templates, and guidance. Please visit our IRB Submissions, Forms & Templates page prior to creating a submission to ensure that you are using the most current versions of our forms and templates.

 

Changes to UConn IRB CITI and Other Updates

The UConn IRB office is pleased to announce the following changes to UConn’s CITI training requirements and our related processes.  Our intent is to reduce the number of times that submissions are returned for changes, streamline review cycles, and reduce burden. These changes were effective Monday, November 20, 2023, for new submissions to the IRB and for those that have not yet undergone Intake review.

  • Ideally CITI human subjects training should be complete and current at the time of IRB submission for all study personnel so that missing or expired trainings do not hold up the approval.  However, the IRB Office will no longer return a submission at the Intake review if the only issue is missing or expired training(s). An email will instead be sent to the PI informing them of who has missing/expired training(s) and noting that the training(s) must be completed before the study can be approved. Investigators will also be given the option to remove any non-essential personnel from the submission and to add them back on via a personnel amendment once the research is approved and training is complete.

 

  • When personnel have completed CITI training elsewhere, but the individual has not yet affiliated with UConn -Storrs and Regional Campuses in their CITI profile, investigators will be given the options of either having them affiliate in CITI so that their training becomes visible to the IRB Office (preferred) or uploading a copy of their CITI Completion Report (not a CITI Training Certificate) into the InfoEd study record. The Completion Report lists the modules that were completed and when. The IRB Office will review the Completion Report and determine whether the training is current (within 3 years) and meets UConn’s requirements or is substantially equivalent (meaning that at least 70% of the modules align).

 

  • For studies that are subject to NIH’s Good Clinical Practice (GCP) Training policy, the UConn IRB Office will no longer require proof of CITI GCP training with IRB submissions.  Instead, Principal Investigators will be responsible for ensuring that study personnel have completed the training, that it is refreshed at least every three years, and for maintaining the proof of training. If a study that is subject to the policy has a Post Approval Monitoring (PAM) visit, the PI may be asked to provide the documentation of GCP training for verification. Proof of training should also be provided to other appropriate parties upon request (e.g., other IRBs, SPS, NIH).

 

We are in the process of updating our webpages and other materials to reflect these changes.  Questions about training requirements can be directed to irb@uconn.edu.

 

Improvements to InfoEd: The project to make improvements to InfoEd is progressing well with all forms undergoing basic testing and revisions to ensure that the logic is functioning properly, and that content appears as expected. Work is also being done on the workflow within the system and other aspects of system set-up. We expect to soon be able to do some more advanced testing and will be reaching out to Investigators and IRB Members to assist with the testing and to provide feedback from their perspectives. Announcements will be forthcoming as we continue to make progress.

 

BRANY IRB: The UConn IRB office would like to remind study teams that new externally funded studies and studies with more than 2 collaborating sites or investigators/study personnel should be submitted to BRANY IRB after an administrative review by the IRB Office to validate consistency with UConn requirements. Please note that this includes both faculty and student research. For more information, including a process overview and BRANY-specific protocol and consent templates, please visit the following IRB webpage: https://ovpr.uconn.edu/brany-irb/.

 

We would also like to clarify that collaborating sites refers to universities and other organizations who are engaged in the research. The term “Collaborating sites” is not intended to encompass external facilities (e.g., K-12 schools) or spaces (e.g., lab space) who have agreed to provide access to their facilities/space for research activities but are not engaged in the research itself.

 

Feedback from investigators thus far has been largely positive, but we are working on a few improvements related to feedback we have received. If you have feedback to share, please reach out to the interim IRB Manager, Karen Christianson, or to the IRB Reliance Team. Feedback is always welcome and appreciated. Questions/feedback can also be sent directly to the BRANY IRB Point of Contact, Vanessa Rodriguez, at vrodrguez@brany.com or 516.514.2445.

2024 Responsible Conduct of Research Training Remote Sessions

This is the last week of the 2024 Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training sessions! Sessions will be presented live via WebEx in a series of hour-long sessions. This week’s sessions include “Managing Mentoring and Peer Relationships” on Monday 2/26, “Research Security/Export Control” on Tuesday 2/27, “Ethics in the Use of Human Subjects in Research” on Thursday 2/29.

 

Who should sign up? All trainees, fellows, participants, and scholars receiving support through any NIH training grant, career development award (individual or institutional), research education grant, or dissertation research grant (specifically, the following programs: D43, D71, F05, F30, F31, F32, F33, F34, F37, F38, K01, K02, K05, K07, K08, K12, K18, K22, K23, K24, K25, K26, K30, K99/R00, KL1, KL2, R25, R36, T15, T32, T34, T35, T36, T37, T90/R90, TL1, TU2, and U2R) are required to complete RCR training per NIH policy. This policy also applies to any other NIH-funded programs supporting research training, career development, or research education that require instruction in responsible conduct of research as stated in the relevant funding opportunity announcements.

 

What kind of training is required? Unlike NSF or USDA NIFA RCR requirements which can be satisfied by online training through the CITI program, NIH requires training to be “face-to-face.” Specifically, 8 hours of unique face-to-face presentation material are required by NIH. The February remote RCR training sessions may be utilized to satisfy this requirement.

 

How do I sign up? Please visit the UConn RCR website for a list of the sessions offered along with registration links. 

 

To learn more about the NIH RCR requirement or other options to satisfy NIH’s RCR training requirement, please visit the UConn RCR website.

 

Questions? Please contact Research Compliance Monitor, Ellen Ciesielski at eciesielski@uchc.edu.

January Responsible Conduct of Research Training

Please join us as we kick off our new monthly in-person Responsible Conduct of Research training offerings! 

 

The Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Program within Research Integrity & Compliance in the OVPR is developing a series of monthly in-person RCR training sessions. For our January event, we will meet to view the Office of Research Integrity’s (ORI) interactive movie: “The Lab – Avoiding Research Misconduct.” The movie is designed as a “choose your own adventure”-type experience to allow participants to work through some common pitfalls and challenges in a low-risk environment. This 1.5-hour event will count towards the 8-hour in person requirement for NIH. For more details about RCR requirements, please visit our RCR Program website.

 

Space is limited so registration is required. To register, please email Research Compliance Monitor, Ellen Ciesielski. For questions, please contact Karen Moré, Director of Research Compliance.

 

What: January RCR in-person training, The Lab – Avoiding Research Misconduct

When: Monday, January 22nd from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Where: Babbidge Library, Class of ’47 Classroom

January RCR Training

Please join us to kick off our new monthly in-person RCR training offerings!

 

The Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Program within Research Integrity & Compliance in the OVPR is developing a series of monthly in-person RCR training sessions. For our January event, we will meet to view the Office of Research Integrity’s (ORI) interactive movie: “The Lab – Avoiding Research Misconduct.” The movie is designed as a “choose your own adventure”-type experience to allow participants to work through some common pitfalls and challenges in a low-risk environment. This 1.5-hour event will count towards the 8-hour in person requirement for NIH. For more details about RCR requirements, please visit our RCR Program website.

 

Space is limited so registration is required. To register, please email Research Compliance Monitor, Ellen Ciesielski. For questions, please contact Karen Moré, Director of Research Compliance.

 

What: January RCR in-person training, The Lab – Avoiding Research Misconduct

When: Monday, January 22nd from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Where: Babbidge Library, Class of ’47 Classroom

Coming Soon! Re-launch of RCR app & new training options

Research Integrity & Compliance within the OVPR is launching a new Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Program, including new training opportunities to fulfill your funder-required RCR requirements. In January, if you work on a National Science Foundation (NSF)National Institutes of Health (NIH)and National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) project, you will receive an automated email from our updated RCR training tracking app. The tracking app will show your current training status and direct you to a list of our RCR Program training options, including online CITI training, monthly in-person trainings, and our February blitz month of remote trainings that can be utilized to satisfy NIH’s requirement for 8 face-to-face training hours. Please consider visiting our RCR Program website now to view your opportunities to get a head start on fulfilling this requirement.

RCR training offerings are continuously being developed and we encourage you to consider how existing departmental events, seminars, or workshops could be leveraged to incorporate RCR-specific learnings to meet the requirements as well. Please contact the RCR Program office (contacts below) to discuss or further brainstorm on how your department may wish to partner with the OVPR in developing content for this effort.

 

Karen Moré, Director of Research Compliance, karen.more@uconn.edu

Ellen Ciesielski, Research Compliance Monitor, eciesielski@uchc.edu

Responsible Conduct of Research Training

Please join us as we kick off our new monthly in-person Responsible Conduct of Research training offerings! 

 

The Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Program within Research Integrity & Compliance in the OVPR is developing a series of monthly in-person RCR training sessions. For this first event, we will meet to view the Office of Research Integrity’s (ORI) interactive movie: “The Lab – Avoiding Research Misconduct.” The movie is designed as a “choose your own adventure”-type experience to allow participants to work through some common pitfalls and challenges in a low-risk environment. This 1.5-hour event will count towards the 8-hour in person requirement for NIH. For more details about RCR requirements, please visit our RCR Program website.

 

Space is limited so registration is required. To register, please email Research Compliance Monitor, Ellen Ciesielski. For questions, please contact Karen Moré, Director of Research Compliance.

 

What: December RCR in-person training, The Lab – Avoiding Research Misconduct

When: Tuesday, December 12th from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Where: Babbidge Library, Class of ’47 Classroom

NIH Plan to Enhance Public Access to the Results of NIH-Supported Research (NIH Public Access Plan)

The Office of the Vice President for Research would like to share some information with researchers who may be affected.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is hosting a virtual, public listening session next Wednesday, April 12, 2023, from 1:00 – 3:00 pm for feedback on the NIH Plan to Enhance Public Access to the Results of NIH-Supported Research (NIH Public Access Plan). The virtual listening session will be viewable through NIH Videocast. Further information about the listening session, including the agenda and how to sign up to make oral comments, can be found on the event page of the Office of Science Policy (OSP) website. The slots for oral comments will be provided in the order they are received until all slots have been filled, and must be received by April 10, 2023.

Written Request for Information (RFI) responses on the NIH Public Access Plan will continue to be accepted until April 24, 2023.

For questions, you can contact OSP at SciencePolicy@od.nih.gov.

 

NE Underwater Research, Technology & Education Center Closure

UConn’s Northeast Underwater Research, Technology and Education Center Closes

Exploration and Research that Made a Difference

 

The University of Connecticut’s Northeast Underwater Research, Technology and Education Center (NURTEC) officially closed on December 31, 2017 after 34 years of activities across the global ocean and large lakes of the world.  Reduced funding and retirement of key personnel necessitated this action.  The Center was established at UConn in 1983 with funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Undersea Research Program (NURP) and began fieldwork with research submersibles, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and advanced wet diving technologies in 1984.  Over the next three decades the Center compiled a remarkable record of scientific accomplishment, technological advancement, and operational safety along with developing unique education and outreach programs.  Using the scientific results generated by this work, the Center also influenced ocean policy and management.  A brief retrospective of the Center recognizes that it was guided both by the mandates and mission of NOAA, focused on conservation and sustainable use of ocean and large lake resources and by the spirit of innovation and exploration that runs deep at UConn.

For the first 25 years NURTEC operated as one of six regional National Undersea Research Centers (NURC’s), soliciting, reviewing and funding undersea research projects that required placing scientists directly, or virtually, underwater.  After federal budget priorities shifted and NURP was eliminated, NURTEC operated as a University cost center for 11 more years, based on a diversity of grants and contracts.  Over time, the Center used 9 different occupied submersibles, ten different remotely operated vehicles, and multiple approaches for wet diving systems including surface supplied, mixed gas and rebreather technologies.  The Center’s annual request for proposals was based upon NOAA’s national and related regional research priorities and was distributed to over 2,500 scientists across the nation.  Over this period the Center brought in over $43 million of federal funds that supported 246 peer-reviewed undersea research and education projects.  While research was focused primarily off the northeast and U.S. Great Lakes, projects also spanned the globe including Antarctica and U.S. Arctic waters, South China Sea, Eastern Tropical Pacific, African Rift Valley Lakes, Lake Baikal in Russia, Gulf of California, Mediterranean, Red Sea, and the northeast Atlantic off Portugal.  Scientists supported by the Center produced 213 peer reviewed publications with data collected from over 8,750 dives.

Location of NURTEC supported dives

Staff scientists at the Center and those supported at other institutions, often working with NOAA partners, made direct contributions to improve management and conservation of ocean resources.  Center scientists took results from their underwater studies to State governments, regional Fishery Management Councils, the U.S. Congress, the United Nations, and even the White House.  Some notable examples include the use of research results to significantly influence the development of essential fish habitat and deep sea coral provisions in national fisheries legislation, implementation of fisheries closed areas off the northeast US to enhance sustainable fisheries, identification of management plan alternatives for National Marine Sanctuaries, development of measures to protect vulnerable ecosystems on the high seas through the United Nations, and designation of the first Marine National Monument in the U.S. North Atlantic by President Obama. Such research also aided decisions about Long Island Sound in regards to assessing impacts of a proposed liquid natural gas terminal and impacts of the disposal of harbor dredge material on seafloor habitats.

Studies with other partners focused on the use of underwater technologies to explore our nation’s rich maritime history.  ROVs were used to identify and survey the remains of the steamship Portland, a sidewheel passenger steamer that sank in 1898 in a surprise storm with loss of 192 lives including crew and passengers.  Called the “Titanic of the Gulf of Maine,” the exploration was featured on Discovery’s Science Channel. Thirty-five additional shipwrecks were surveyed while working with NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuary program, four of which have been provided additional protection by placement on the National Register of Historic Places.  Further, the Center surveyed the wreck of the Lightship LV-51 that sank at the mouth of the Connecticut River, resulting in its being designated as Connecticut’s second submerged heritage site.

Since its inception the Center played a leading role in developing underwater sampling tools to meet the needs of sponsored researchers working on a variety of diving technologies.  In 1987 the Center initiated its remotely operated vehicle (ROV) program with the purchase of the first commercially available low-cost vehicle, the MiniRover, capable of diving to 1,000 feet and collecting samples using a simple manipulator arm. Over the next thirty years the Center acquired, operated and upgraded a number of ROVs to better serve the research community, culminating with the development of the 1,000-meter Kraken2 (K2). The K2 is widely recognized as one of the most capable and affordable “science class” ROV’s in the country and conducted a wide range of missions in support of ocean science and infrastructure.  Over the past decade the K2 has provided subsea maintenance to help keep the NSF Ocean Observatories Initiative’s Pioneer Array, located on the continental shelf south of Martha’s Vineyard, operational; recovered NOAA’s $500K HabCam towed imaging system that was lost on the wreck of the Bow Mariner; supported numerous projects focused on deep sea corals in the Gulf of Maine, Atlantic seaboard, Gulf of Mexico and National Marine Sanctuaries off the coasts of Oregon and California; and surveyed over 65 nautical miles of subsea cables for the U.S. Navy operating from the Research Vessel Connecticut.

Recovering the K2 ROV onto the RV Connecticut following a dive in the Gulf of Maine

Ocean science education was an enduring mission of the Center with a focus on the unique contribution that underwater technologies make to the advancement of science and the engagement of students and teachers.  The High School Aquanaut Program, conducted over the course of 20 years, engaged students and teachers in hands-on field science using submersibles, remotely operated vehicles and acoustic technologies.  The NSF-funded Classroom of the Sea program developed innovative ocean science education approaches for deaf and hard of hearing students.  Most recently, the Center led one of the 14 Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence (COSEE) funded by the NSF – COSEE-TEK – Technology and Engineering for Knowledge that utilized ocean science and technology to provide professional development for high school teachers, and engage and expose students to ocean sciences and engineering career opportunities, including dozens of undergraduate students from the New England Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation.

While NURTEC has ceased to operate, the legacy of excellence and innovation will continue within the Department of Marine Sciences.  Former Center Director Ivar Babb is now a Research Scientist within the Department with a focus on science education and the broader impacts of ocean research.  Research Professor Emeritus and former NURTEC Science Director Peter Auster, who has had a faculty appointment with the Department since 2002, continues his studies on the ecology and conservation of marine fishes, human impacts on the sea, and the use of marine protected areas as conservation tools.  The Underwater Vehicles Laboratory and ROV operations, led by Kevin Joy, will now be directed by the Department’s marine operations program.