University of Georgia

Tag: Compliance

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The National Science Foundation’s  Office of the Inspector General  promised in a written report recently  to use every compliance and enforcement tool at its disposal to ensure compliance with federal rules and regulations.

The current Inspector General  proposes to expand debarments to include Principal Investigators (PIs) who are not current with submission of required final reports.  Debarment is a tool that ensures, for a defined period of time (often three years), that the entire federal government will not conduct additional business with individuals or organizations whose improper conduct leads to questions regarding the party’s honesty, ethics, or competence.

All UGA PIs receiving funds from NSF should take note of this threat and ensure that any and all final technical reports on projects for which they have received NSF funding are submitted in accordance with grant terms.  Failure to timely submit required final technical reports to the NSF could torpedo your ability to apply for funds from any federal agency for periods up to three years.

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Compliance, Integrity & Safety

Effective January 1, 2014, projects or activities involving human subjects that will be conducted by students to satisfy the requirements for a course and are only being carried out for teaching or training purposes (e.g., research methodology courses) will no longer need to be submitted to the Human Subjects Office (HSO).

These projects do not meet the federal definition of human subjects research and are outside the purview of the University of Georgia Institutional Review Board (IRB).  As with any instructional activity, the course instructor is responsible for providing the oversight and guidance to students for these types of class projects.  It is, however, expected that all these activities will uphold the principles of ethical treatment and respect, and ensure the safety and protection, of the individuals who will be involved in these projects.  When a class project meets the definition of human subjects research, this activity must be reviewed by the IRB.  Masters or doctoral theses involving human participants meet the definition of human research and must be submitted for IRB review.

The new policy, including relevant definitions and faculty/student responsibilities for the conduct of class projects, is described in detail at IRB Guidelines XII.

The HSO professional staff, upon request, can provide educational seminars/training sessions for faculty, staff, and students on this topic or other IRB matters.  For questions or guidance related to this policy change or to schedule an educational seminar/training session, please call 706.542.3199 or email irb@uga.edu.

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Compliance, Integrity & Safety

To facilitate the preparation of Animal Use Protocols, UGA’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) has recently endorsed a variety of commonly used technical procedures for basic animal research.  Details of these procedures are available on the Animal Care and Use website at https://ovpr.uga.edu/oacu/procedures

Abstracts of these procedures can be cut and pasted directly into an Animal Use Protocol.  Since the procedures are pre-reviewed, this step will reduce the time associated with regulatory evaluation.  The abstracts for use in protocols can be found at https://ovpr.uga.edu/oacu/procedures/#abstracts

These procedures are not meant to serve as the complete listing of acceptable techniques.  Other, equally appropriate techniques, can be similarly employed with IACUC approval.  Any deviations from the endorsed procedures or any alternate procedures should be discussed with the Attending Veterinarian.

Additional procedures and related-species are planned for future editions and updates to this list.  For questions related to these procedures, please contact the Research Compliance Training Coordinator at anitrain@uga.edu

 

 

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Compliance, Integrity & Safety

Beginning in 2014, the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) will require all personnel listed on an Animal Use Protocol to complete at least 1 hour of continuing education (CE) related to animal use in research every 3 years.  This additional hour of CE supplements the existing requirement to update every 3 years the basic animal care and use training with the “UGA IACUC 101 Refresher.”  The CE requirements are the result of new regulatory guidance that specifies the need for ongoing education with documentation.  The IACUC has been charged with the oversight of these new requirements.

This additional hour of CE can come from a variety of sources but must be specifically related to the use of animals in research. The CEU can be satisfied through relevant coursework, seminars, lectures, and webinars as long as documentation can be provided. The hour can also be completed through online coursework using the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS) Learning Library at www.aalaslearninglibrary.org.  A unique Username and Password is required.   Accounts are provided free-of-charge to all personnel engaged in animal-based research at UGA. The training course, “Staying Healthy While Working with Laboratory Animals” can also be used to meet this requirement provided that credit occurred within the last 3 years.

2014 Animal Use Protocols and Renewals will be placed on Training Hold if any personnel on the protocol have not received this CE credit on their training transcript.  Any documented training done in 2013 or 2014 will be eligible for the 2014 credit. Documentation of this CE must be submitted to the Research Compliance Training Coordinator at anitrain@uga.edu or faxed to 706-542-5638.  Additionally, please contact the Coordinator if you need access to the online library or have additional questions.

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Compliance, Integrity & Safety

Federal export control regulations govern what scientific instruments, technologies, software and materials can be accessed by foreign nationals studying, visiting, or working in the U.S., as well as what items can be transferred abroad to certain destinations based on the type of item, end use, and user and country destination.

The UGA Office of the Vice President for Research commissioned an assessment of UGA’s risk through interviews and discussions with UGA faculty and administrators earlier this year. Its objectives were to identify current and potential risk-sensitive research activities; outline compliance requirements; provide tools that UGA can implement; and make recommendations for an export control compliance program.

The results of the assessment and recommendations are presented in this video.

In the coming months, an Export Control program will be established in collaboration with a number of operational and academic units on campus.  In addition to interfacing with regulators, the program will provide support and training for faculty and staff conducting business of any type with the international community.

Questions: Please contact Chris King, cking@uga.edu, Associate Vice President for Compliance, Office of the Vice President for Research.