uconn health

UConn Quantum Technologies Translation Award (QuTech) Program

The Quantum Technologies Translation Award Program (QuTech), made possible through investments by the Connecticut Office of Innovation (CTNext), supports the derisking of use-inspired innovations centered on quantum and quantum adjacent technologies through Academic / Industry partnerships. The program provides up to $40,000 to help accelerate the translation of UConn/UCH developed quantum and quantum adjacent technologies / applications for real world impact. QuTech is open to UConn/UCH researchers who have:

Completed research and developed (at minimum) a Proof of Concept,
A use-inspired application with strong market potential and a path for IP protection, and
A partnership with an established quantum-related company or startup (the proposing team cannot have an ownership stake in the partner company).

Funds can be used for:

Supporting students to conduct experiments designed to de-risk the technology for targeted applications,
External validation of the technology and/or its use cases with an industry and/or startup partner, and/or
Use of in-house or external resources critical for de-risking the technology.

Applications will be reviewed by internal and external researchers familiar with quantum technologies and/or associated markets.

Important Dates (all due dates by 12 noon)

2/24/25 – program opens.
3/31/2025 Full Proposal deadline. Submissions are made via the Quest Portal
Award Notifications are expected in May, 2025

Award details:

The OVPR anticipates funding up to up to 4 awards of $40,000.
Award periods will be for one year
Awards will be funded in two equal payments. The second payment will be made six months into the award period, pending completion of milestones, submission of a report, and adherence to program guidelines.
QuTech awards are intended to support the translation of quantum-related innovations developed within the labs / research groups of UConn/UConn Health faculty members. Funds cannot be used for
- a) continuing previous/ongoing commercialization projects,
- b) costs related to creating/operating start-up companies, or
- c) development activities that take place within startup companies.
Awardees will be connected with commercialization experts from OVPR’s Technology Commercialization and Venture Development group. Awardees should expect to work closely with TCS to discuss progress/obstacles, undergo commercialization-related training, and to gain access to advice and resources that will enhance the project’s chances for commercial success. Awardees are required to work with TCS's IP team to protect their innovation (target: provisional patent filing 6 months to 1 year after project launch).

The QuTech program is available to UConn/UConn Health faculty members, within the following parameters:

IP: Projects should have intellectual property at their core. To be eligible, project-related UConn IP must exist and a UConn invention disclosure must be filed prior to applying. Projects based on IP not developed at UConn are not eligible.
Startups and License Options: If a startup related to the QuTech project exists at the time of award, an option agreement must be taken within 6 months of the award. If a startup company related to the project is formed at any point in the future, an option agreement must be taken within six months of the startup creation.
Effort and Salary:
- The award does not pay for any PI salary or for time spent on the project
- Although no minimum effort level is required for QuTech projects, a PI/Co-PI must have institutionally-funded research time available during the award period to lead and complete the project.
- Research Professors / those whose positions are contingent on grant-funding (soft money positions) must include details about their institutionally-funded research time as part of the budget justification to confirm eligibility.
UConn Primary Appointment:
- PIs must be faculty or staff whose primary appointment is at UConn/UConn Health. Awards are available to tenure-track, tenured, Clinical, Research, and in-Residence faculty with Assistant Professor rank or higher.
- Researchers with primary appointments to CCMC, Jackson Labs, or TIP or other startup companies are not eligible to apply.
- Individuals who are not eligible to apply as a PI may be able to serve as a collaborator/consultant on an eligible PI’s project.
Number of submissions: Eligible faculty may only submit one proposal as lead PI. Investigators may serve as collaborator on multiple projects.

Elements to include in the full application are as follows:

A one-paragraph abstract (type or copy/paste into a form on Quest).
Project plan document three page maximum, 11-pt font and 1” margins), including
1. Problem/Unmet need: Describe the problem or unmet need that the innovation will address.
2. Description of the innovation: Describe the innovation or technology concept.
3. Estimate Market Size:
  1. Which industries are likely to adopt the technology? Why is this technology important for these industries?
  2. Please describe the total available market this technology addresses (TAM) and how much of the TAM this technology will address.
4. Competing Products:
  1. Identify any currently available products/technologies and explain why they do not adequately satisfy the problem or unmet need.
  2. Explain how the proposed innovation is different from or better than those that are already available.
5. Intellectual property (IP): Describe your IP position, and the competitive IP landscape. List your current patent applications or patents pending as well as any granted patents related to this project. If you currently have no patent applications, please mention plans for future invention disclosures.
6. Commercialization Plan:
  1. Explain how the proposed de-risking activities will allow you to achieve the major milestones required to further develop the technology for market entry.
  2. Describe your plans for funding development of this technology beyond the QuTech grant (through SBIR/STTR, Angel and VC funding, etc).
7. Preliminary evidence: Summarize any preliminary data available that substantiates the proposed innovation usefulness for the applications envisioned.
8. Proposed work with project milestones: Outline the proposed scope of work approaches with timelines and a clearly defined set of objective milestones to be completed by the end of the initial award period. Please include an analysis of how the proposed activities will sufficiently de-risk the innovation to allow for further commercial development.
Biosketches/CVs: Please include brief biosketches/CVs (formatted as appropriate for your field) for all PIs/Co-PIs (No more than 3 pages). Include your most recent publications or those most relevant to the work proposed. Also include current/pending support from external sponsors and UConn sources (including start-up funding). Biosketches/CVs may be uploaded as one PDF or as separate PDF documents.
Budget: Provide a preliminary budget estimate and proposed use of funds. Please see Internal Funding Budget Guidelines for instructions and a budget template.
The budget spreadsheet should be converted to PDF format prior to upload.

Proposals will be scored based on the following criteria:

Market Need—does the innovation address an unmet need and is there evidence that there is a market for the proposed solution?

Does the applicant make a strong case that there is a need/problem that needs to be met?
Is the science/technology strong enough to evidence its success
Does the proposal include data about how much of the market the technology may realistically capture?

Innovation and Novelty—Is the innovation novel and/or does it make a significant improvement over currently-available solutions?

Does the proposal make a convincing argument that the innovation is novel and or makes a significant improvement over currently-available solutions?
Is there existing or the potential for intellectual property protection?
To what degree does the innovation solve the unmet need differently (e.g., better, faster, cheaper) than the current state-of-the art?
If novel, is the innovation a disruptive technology, a platform technology, or an incremental improvement over the current state-of-the art?

Commercialization Plan—Is there a realistic path for commercializing the innovation?

Does the proposal present a path to bring the innovation forward to market?
Does the proposal present plans for future financing of the project, such as SBIR/STTR or industry investment?
For future development, will this technology require regulatory approval? If so, does the proposal address plans for successfully navigating the process?
Does the applicant point to any obvious potential licenses / commercial partners for this innovation?

Approach and Feasibility—Are the activities proposed attainable in the proposed timeline and are they consistent with the high scientific/scholarly standards?

Does the investigator/team have appropriate expertise and laboratory facilities available to conduct the work?
Does the project include the involvement of a UConn core facility or a third party be required to complete the work (e.g prototype development)? If so, have appropriate commitments been obtained?
To what degree will the activities proposed de-risk and advance the development of the innovation?

QuTech awardees agree to provide regular progress reports to the OVPR during and after the award period. Reports fall into four categories:

Consultations with TCS: Awardees are expected to connect regularly throughout the award period with their point of contact within OVPR Technology Commercialization Services to discuss progress, to talk through potential problems, and to consider future steps and additional resources that may be of use. Each PI will work with their TCS contact to set up the best check-in schedule, but it is expected that consultations would happen at least on a quarterly basis.
Six-month Reporting: After six months of each award period, applicants will be asked to submit a progress report via the Quest Portal. After review of this report, the second payment of the award period will be made to the award account.
Annual Reports: Recognizing that investments made by the OVPR can often take some time to produce their full results, we will be asking that all recipients of OVPR Internal Funding, including QuTech, submit outcomes reports over the life of the project. This will allow us to better understand the impact of internal funding and make the case for it continuing / increasing.
- Reporting requirements: PIs will need to prepare a brief report, using this Award Report Template to summarize project progress within one month of posting final expenses unless an extension from the OVPR has been received.
  - We’ll be interested in hearing about the results of your project,
  - the significance of those results, and
  - gathering statistics about graduate students supported, publications, external grants / patents received, other projects launched, etc.
  - Other questions may also be included as needed. The OVPR may request updates annually for up to five years following the end of the award period to track the development of the project longitudinally.

The QuTech program is jointly administered by OVPR Technology Commercialization Services and Internal Funding Program.

Program Director
Dr. Vivek Ramakrishnan
Director, Venture Development, OVPR Technology Commercialization Services
vivek.ramakrishnan@uconn.edu

Dr. Matt Mroz
Manager, Research Development Services
matthew.mroz@uconn.edu

Program point of contact (Contact for information on program/process, application status, award management/extensions)

Charlotte Nelson
Internal Funding Coordinator
research@uconn.edu

External Funding Resources Overview

The Research Development Services team offers several resources to assist faculty in finding external funding opportunities for their research and scholarship.

Listservs

Sign up for our Funding Opportunity Listservs to receive periodic emails with funding opportunities in topic areas of interest to you.

Databases

UConn subscribes to two grant funding search engines:

Pivot-RP, encompassing state, federal, corporate, non-profit, and foundation sponsors. Create an account to identify potential funding opportunities, receive weekly funding alerts based on your research profile, and identify potential collaborators within UConn using Pivot Profiles.

Foundation Directory Online, specializing in private and corporate foundation funding.

Specific Topic Areas

UConn is a key member of the QuantumCT initiative. Our team has curated funding opportunities specific to research, workforce development, and education related to the quantum sciences.

ARPA-H – a new research funding agency focused on transformative biomedical and health breakthroughs. See our ARPA-H funding resources page for more information.

Contact our team!

For assistance with any of these tools or questions regarding external funding opportunities, please contact the RDS team at ovpr-rds@uconn.edu.

ARPA-H Current Funding Opportunities

The RDS team suggests contacting us for support on ARPA-H submissions well before submitting a solution summary or proposal, as their programs and requirements frequently change. We are keeping up to date with these changes and can help your submission meet current requirements.

Background

Mission: The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) accelerates better health outcomes for everyone by supporting the development of high-impact solutions to society’s most challenging health problems.

Who They Are: ARPA-H advances high-potential, high-impact biomedical and health research that cannot be readily accomplished through traditional research or commercial activity. ARPA-H awardees are developing entirely new ways to tackle the hardest challenges in health.

Contact

This contact form can be used to connect with ARPA-H directly.

Mission Office ISOs

The four current ARPA-H focus areas translate to four mission offices. Each mission office has its own Innovative Solutions Opening (ISO) to replace the previous Open BAA. Interested applicants should submit their proposal to the Mission Office ISO that best fits their subject matter.

All Mission Office ISOs require solution summaries prior to a full proposal and have a closing date of March 3, 2025.

Health Science Futures (HSF)

Expanding what’s technically possible. Accelerating advances across research areas and removing limitations that stymie progress towards solutions. The tools and platforms developed apply to a broad range of diseases.

Proactive Health (PHO)

Keeping people from being patients. Reducing the likelihood that people become patients. Preventative programs will create new capabilities to detect and characterize disease risk and promote treatments and behaviors to anticipate threats to Americans’ health, whether those are viral, bacterial, chemical, physical, or psychological.

Resilient Systems (RSO)

Building integrated health care systems. Developing capabilities, business models, and integrations to endure crises such as pandemics, social disruption, and economic instability. Resilient systems need to sustain themselves between crises, from the molecular to the societal, to better achieve outcomes that advance American health and wellbeing.

Scalable Solutions (SSO)

Reaching everyone quickly. Addressing challenges that include geography, distribution, manufacturing, data and information, and economies of scale to create programs that result in impactful, timely, and equitable solutions.

Current Programs and Exploration Topics

Note: Solution summaries and full proposals are due at varying times of day on due dates depending on the program. Be sure to confirm these times on each program’s program page, linked in the table below.

Funding Opportunity Listservs

Quantum-related Funding Opportunities and Resources

Advances in quantum science have the potential to have transformative social and economic impact. New technologies are poised to revolutionize major industries, creating opportunities for new applications that will fuel economic growth.

To meet these challenges, UConn has partnered with Yale University and other key stakeholders to lead the Quantum-CT Regional Innovation Engine project. Quantum-CT is an effort to build an innovation ecosystem of researchers, educators, industry, and state/local stakeholders to harness the economic impact of new quantum-enabled technologies through technology development, innovation and entrepreneurship, and advances in STEM education and workforce development.

Want to contribute to the quantum revolution? We strongly encourage interested faculty in all disciplines to partner together and with Yale University, other regional academic/educational institutions, corporate/industry stakeholders, and community partners on research projects that will:

Develop use-inspired applications of quantum technologies;
Transform STEM education and workforce training to create a quantum-ready workforce; and
Investigate the societal and economic impact of new quantum technologies;

To support the success of the Quantum-CT effort, we encourage

All grant submissions
Cross-institution applications, not only among UConn and Yale, but also with other schools and colleges that represent a variety of communities within our state
Submissions for projects whose education and workforce development component may be provided by partnering with the QuantumCT workforce and education team
Submissions for the development of education materials with a quantum science theme that can be facilitated by partnering with a QuantumCT research team

To assist faculty in finding funding opportunities to support their quantum-related research, OVPR Research Development Services has curated a list of relevant funding opportunities, below, which is updated monthly (last updated 2/10/2025).

March Remote RCR Training 3/26

Posted on March 15, 2024March 21, 2024 by Ellen Ciesielski

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

Research Communications

What We Do

The UConn Research Communications team is responsible for promoting and disseminating research conducted at the university. Our primary functions include:

Public Relations
- We write and distribute press releases and manage media inquiries related to research conducted at UConn.
Science Communication
- The team works to translate complex research findings into accessible language for the general public, especially by producing content for the university’s house media outlet, UConn Today.
Social Media and Web Presence
- Research Communications manages social media accounts (X, LinkedIn, and Instagram), the university’s research websites (internal and external), and online publications to keep the public informed about ongoing research projects and their outcomes.
Event Promotion
- Research Communications helps organize and promote events related to research, such as lectures, seminars, and conferences. This helps in engaging the public and other stakeholders.
Internal Communications
- In addition to external communication, our team ensures that research findings and news are effectively communicated within the university community.
Graphic Design and Multimedia
- Our talented graphic designers and multimedia specialists help create visually appealing materials to accompany research communications, such as infographics, videos, and other visual content.
Media Training
- We provide media training to researchers and UConn service units to help them effectively communicate their work to the public and the press.

Get in Touch

Need our services? For internal inquiries (UConn researchers/faculty/staff), submit a ticket with the specifics of your request. This helps us streamline our response and will ensure the quickest turnaround.

For external inquiries and other requests, email us.

Communications Support Request Form

The Research Communications team supports UConn faculty and researchers with the following communications deliverables and services:

UConn Today Stories
Press Releases
Website update (for ovpr.uconn.edu and ovpr.uchc.edu only)
Social Media Posts or Graphics
Design Project
Presentation Decks
Photography/Videography
Social Media Training
Communications Etiquette Training
Other Special Projects

To request any of the above, please fill out our support request form, and our team will be happy to assist you.

Internal Funding Budget Guidelines

The proposal budget is the financial plan of action that reflects the costs required to perform the proposed work statement. The following information has been prepared to help you develop your budget plan. It is important to demonstrate that the budget proposed is reasonable.

A budget justification should be submitted to allow for each budget category to be explained relative to the proposed research. The budget justification explains how the estimated costs for the categories were derived and explains the need for the cost. Budgets should be prepared for the entire proposed project.

While our budget sheet template has been designed to make it easy for an applicant to complete it on their own, we encourage all applicants to consult with their local grant administrators to ensure that budgets are correctly completed. Faculty in CLAS are asked to reach out to clasgrants@uconn.edu to work with the Grant Management Services (GMS) team to complete the budgets for internal funding program applications.

Download and save the budget sheet template to your computer: OVPR_Internal-Funding_Budget-Template_FY26-for-FY25-competitions

The following categories are generally included in the preparation of a proposal budget:

Salary: List all personnel, including the names and roles devoted to the project.
Fringe benefits: Automatically computed on the budget sheet template except for ‘other,’ refer to Storrs/Regional Fringe Benefit Rates and UCH Fringe Benefit Rates.
Equipment: Tangible, non-expendable, individual property having an anticipated life of one year or more with a unit acquisition cost of $5,000 or greater. For information see equipment definitions on the accounting website.
Travel (transportation & Per Diem): Includes any travel necessary to conduct research (in support of specific project aims). For information on travel procedures and processes, see the travel website.
Materials & Supplies: Any consumable not falling into the category of equipment, as defined above.
Participant Support: Indicate incentives, travel, and other subsistence costs necessary for the project.
Animals/Animal Care: Animal costs should reflect the type of animal, the number of animals and the unit cost per animal. Per Diem costs should list the number of days of Per Diem. Please refer to OAC for per diem rates.
Contractual Services: Fees and charges for specialized services, such as library access fees, laboratory analysis fees, consultant fees, subject fees, etc.

General guidelines regarding allowable/unallowable costs that are consistent with other OVPR internal funding opportunities. If you have a budget need that does not fit within these guidelines, please reach out to the OVPR Research Development Internal Funding team at research@uconn.edu to discuss options.

Allowable costs include:

Graduate Research Assistants
- AY Graduate Research Assistantships (20 hour/week). Can choose GA level and specify percentage effort on the project.
- Summer. You may request up to $2000 per student per annum.
Postdoc or other research assistant/technician salary
- Postdoc stipends should follow the NIH NRSA stipend levels. You may enter the base salary of each postdoc and record the postdoc’s effort percentage on this project.
Student Labor. Undergraduate student labor is paid on an hourly basis, plus fringe benefits. Please refer to the student employment website for levels of experience and compensation. Please enter the total amount you are budgeting for all undergraduate student labor costs
Summer Fellowships. Storrs/regional campus faculty members on nine-month appointments may receive salary during the summer months. A maximum of $3,000 per award (plus fringe) may be requested for single PI proposals and $5,000 per award (plus fringe) for Multi-PI proposals (limit $3K per PI). The request for summer funds must be carefully justified. For more information, contact the OVPR.
Course buyouts
- Course buyout may be requested for Storrs/regional campus faculty, but the PI must explain why release time is vital to the project. Faculty requesting funds for course buy-outs must include a statement of support from the department head.
  - ‘The department supports a course buyout for ‘PI name’s’ application for the ‘award name’ program entitled ‘project title,’ under the OVPR’s terms for the inclusion of course buyouts in internal funding awards.’
- Amount requested cannot exceed the minimum per-credit adjunct rate for the course being replaced. For more information, contact the OVPR.
- Limit of one per PI (Principal Investigators) per project
- Please refer to the payroll department.
Fringe costs
Equipment purchases
Travel to conduct research or meet with collaborators (travel approval may be required)
Materials and supplies
Participant support costs
Animal/animal care costs
Contractual services (including fee-for-service contracts with partner institutions)

Unallowable costs include:

Subawards to partner institutions
Faculty member salaries
Clerical or administrative personnel salaries
Including personnel whose primary purpose is to explore funding sources and/or prepare grant applications
Service/maintenance contracts on equipment
Laboratory renovations, or other infrastructure renovations
Institutional memberships in professional organizations
Computers, laptops, tablets, or other standard office equipment (computers that serve a specialized research function beyond what standard office equipment can provide are allowable)
Travel to professional meetings to present the results of the research
Travel to explore extramural funding opportunities
Costs associated with the publication of results of the research including page charges, purchase of reprints, or journal costs.

SPS Guidance Regarding Potential Federal Government Shutdown

Frequently Asked Questions During a Lapse in Appropriations (White House)

Agency Contingency Plans

UConn Sponsored Program Services is closely monitoring developments in Washington, D.C., and evaluating the likelihood of a federal government shutdown and its potential impact on UConn research activity. The U.S. Government is currently operating under a Continuing Resolution, which extends the deadline for passage of spending bills through midnight March 28, 2025.

In the event of a federal government shutdown (as in previous instances), researchers with active federally sponsored grants and contracts will generally be instructed to continue work unless the project requires significant involvement of federal employees. Investigators may receive instructions from their contracting or program officers; if you receive such information, please notify your SPS award management contact immediately (links below).

Based on past shutdown experience, SPS anticipates the following potential impacts on sponsored programs operations:

Proposals and Application Systems

We expect that some agencies will not be available to process proposals and that others will retain submitted proposals for processing when normal operations resume. If you are preparing an application or progress report for an upcoming submission deadline, please continue to prepare those documents for an on-time submission; however, we encourage you to monitor further updates for specific guidance and the potential for those deadlines to be extended.

Proposal preparation systems are expected to remain online during a shutdown, though proposals may not be processed by agencies until normal operations resume. Watch for announcements from agencies for extensions of deadline dates. There is a possibility that the Grants.gov Contact Center will remain available; however, it is unclear if all Help Desk systems will remain functional.
Peer reviews and study sections are not expected to occur, which may impact faculty who serve as reviewers, and may result in potential delays in start dates for those whose proposals are awaiting review if the shutdown is prolonged.
Agencies will likely not issue new notices, awards, or other actions during the shutdown.

Award Management

In general, researchers with active federally sponsored grants and contracts will be instructed to continue work, but the following exceptions are noted:

Personnel working in federal labs/facilities, and possibly on cooperative agreements and joint awards may receive notification that they are not permitted to work on associated awards during the shutdown.
Faculty working at a federal agency on an interagency personnel agreement (IPA) should immediately contact the agency to determine next steps.
“Stop Work” orders may be implemented for federal contracts, in which case employees can no longer be paid with federal funds allocated to that contract.
Final reports should be submitted on time if sponsor systems are operational.

Federal personnel WILL NOT be available, though each agency may articulate emergency contact procedures. Federal personnel will not be available for scheduled campus visits or project status meetings.

Agency Contingency Plans are available, though no sponsor-specific guidance on how a potential federal government shutdown may impact submission of new or competing proposal submissions has yet been provided.

SPS will continue to monitor agency-specific communications regarding a potential shutdown and provide detailed updates and specific guidance via this page and email.

Storrs SPS Contacts

UCH SPS Contacts

Award Report

After awards are made and the project has been completed, the OVPR (Office of the Vice President for Research) would like to evaluate project progress and to learn more about the impact of the work that has been done. Please email research@uconn.edu with a 1–2-page narrative that includes the following:

Cover: title, team, funding mechanism, date of award, etc.
Summary (brief): of the project aims/goals and the results to date.
Project Outcomes (if relevant): publications, grant applications, grant awards, invention disclosures, patents, other “products.”
Project Impacts (if relevant): discipline impacts, institutional impacts (students, teaching, infrastructure etc.), economic impacts, community impacts
Anticipated next steps (if relevant): follow-on projects, dissemination plans, external funding strategy, commercialization, etc.

After the award period ends, we are interested in receiving updates on outcomes from the award. We understand that the full realization of many projects may appear sometime after the funded work is complete. After this initial report is submitted, we will contact you in the future for updates on the project’s longitudinal impacts.

SCRO Forms and Submission Deadlines

SCRO Registration Form

SCRO Amendment Form

SCRO Completion Form

The SCRO Committee is scheduled to meet quarterly but can be convened as needed in between scheduled meetings. Submission Deadline: For new registrations, please submit all required materials at least 4 weeks prior to the scheduled meeting date.

2025 SCRO Meeting Dates

January 7, 2025

March 26, 2025

July 23, 2025

October 22, 2025

SCRO Policies, Regulations & Guidance

For a detailed description of UConn/UConn Health SCRO Committee policies, please consult the SCRO Policy Manual document.

For additional resources, please check out the following links:

Training for Users of Stem Cells

University policy requires all researchers and research staff, including students, post-docs, visitors, and faculty, to pass the Human Stem Cell Compliance tutorial quiz with 100% accuracy prior to engaging in research. The tutorial is intended to educate researchers on ethical issues associated with hESC and hiPSC research and inform them of relevant institutional, state, and federal policies and procedures.

The tutorial is not required for those conducting in vitro human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC) research involving the generation of gametes, embryos, or other totipotent cells. The tutorial is also not required for research that requires SCRO review to secure State of Connecticut funding but otherwise would not fall under SCRO’s jurisdiction (i.e., non-human stem cells, etc.). All other research requires that research staff complete the tutorial prior to beginning work on approved SCRO projects.

To access the tutorial, quiz, and the sheet to record your answers, click on the links below. Return your answer sheet to SCRO Coordinator, Ellen Ciesielski, eciesielski@uchc.edu. You will be notified of your quiz results and receive a certificate upon successful completion.

Coordination with Other Oversight Committees

The SCRO Committee does not replace the oversight of the Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC), Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) or Institutional Review Board (IRB), or alter the scope of review of these committees. Protocols that normally require IBC, IACUC and/or IRB approval continue to require these approvals. Investigators have the responsibility of submitting the required documents to the relevant oversight committees. If any component of the research project is conducted at an institution other than UConn, the SCRO Committee must receive documentation that the relevant approvals (IBC, IACUC, or IRB) have been obtained at the institution where the research is conducted.

The SCRO Committee has the final sign-off on stem cell protocol approvals. Final SCRO Committee approval will not be given until the SCRO Committee receives documentation of all required IBC, IACUC and IRB approvals. Continued SCRO approval is contingent upon all other relevant approvals being current. Parallel review with the SCRO Committee and the IRB, IBC or IACUC is permitted. Investigators may submit their protocol applications to the SCRO Committee while IRB, IBC or IACUC approval is pending or after it is granted.

IBC: All use of recombinant DNA or hazardous biological materials (human cells) must be approved by the Institutional Biosafety Committee at the campus where the research will be conducted.
IACUC: All use of animals must be approved by the IACUC at the campus where the research will be conducted.
IRB: Because oversight issues of the IRB and the SCRO Committee are intertwined, it is recommended that the IRB and SCRO Committee reviews occur in parallel. Approval must be obtained from the IRB at the campus where the research will occur. Investigators should submit a copy of their IRB application to the SCRO Committee along with their SCRO Committee application. A UConn IRB must review and approve stem cell research protocols for:
- Informed consent for the donation of human embryos, gametes, or somatic cells from human subjects to UConn researchers;
- Receiving and coding for human biological materials with personal donor identifiers;
- Implanting stem cells into human subjects.

Documentation for acquired cells

All stem cell projects are required to have proper documentation for the hESC and hiPSC lines that faculty plan to use before the SCRO Committee can provide final approval.

Cells derived at another institution or outside UConn require an executed Material Transfer Agreement (MTA).
Cells coming from the UConn Stem Cell Core facility but developed and owned elsewhere such as the WiCell Stem Cell Bank lines that are banked at the Core require a shortened Materials Transfer Agreement (MTA) known as a Short Letter Agreement (SLA). The procedures for obtaining these cells and the required documentation are detailed on the Core website: https://health.uconn.edu/stem-cell-core/services/distribution-of-human-pluripotent-stem-cell-lines/.
Investigators who plan to use hESC/iPSC lines that have not been previously approved by the UConn SCRO Committee must provide documentation of their provenance and their ethical derivation. This documentation includes:
- A copy of the fully executed Material Transfer Agreement (MTA)
- Evidence of IRB approval at the relevant institution
- Documentation of the informed consent process in sufficient detail to allow for evaluation of conformity with State of Connecticut Regulations, National Academy of Science Guidelines, and standards of the UConn SCRO Committee and IRB.

Office of the Vice President for Research