June 2010

Full time faculty who have joint appointments with the School of Public Health and the School of Medicine are required to submit their human subjects research applications to the IRB associated with the school of their primary appointment.  There are some circumstances under which this requirement may be altered. A request to allow submission to the school in which the PI has a secondary appointment is required. This option is only available if the secondary school agrees to accept review responsibility. The JHSPH IRB Director and the JHSPH IRB Chair must agree to assume the IRB responsibility for the specific project. The Vice Dean for Clinical Investigation for the SOM and the Associate Dean for Research for the JHSPH will make the ultimate determination for alternation of the standard review responsibilities. Decisions on the request for alteration of the review requirement will be conveyed to the PI and the Office of Human Subjects Research.

The following factors are relevant to their consideration:

1. Funding:  The IRB review should be associated with the School receiving the funding award.
   
2. Multi-site studies:  If one school will serve as the lead institution for a multi-site study, and the IRB will review both the parent protocol and a local site application as well, a local site application from the other school may be reviewed by the same IRB.
   
3. Collaboration:  The PI of one school has an application that is so integrally related to an application or program conducted by the other school as to make it unnecessarily burdensome to require review by the school of the PI’s primary appointment.
   
4. Standing: The investigator must be eligible to serve as a PI in the division in which they have their primary appointment.