About the Office of Research Compliance

The Office of Research Compliance serves as the administrative hub for the Institutional Review Board (IRB), Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) and the Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC).  All submissions for review by and official notifications from any of these bodies respectively come to and are issued from this office.

FUNCTION:

The Office of Research Compliance is designed to support and assist faculty, staff, and students in conducting research in compliance with federal, state, local and University regulations and policies.  In recent years, the federal government has increased the level of oversight in research projects.  With increased site visits by federal inspectors, universities and other institutions have had to develop proactive methods of ensuring compliance.  The consequences of noncompliance are severe, often resulting in institutions having to suspend federally funded research activities, or in some cases having sanctions imposed that prevent them from obtaining federal funding for a number of years.  Bowling Green State University is committed to providing a safe and productive research environment.  To that end the Office of Research Compliance:

• Coordinates the development, implementation, and operation of policies and procedures designed to protect the rights and welfare of human participants in research conducted under the auspices of Bowling Green State University.  This is largely accomplished through the activities of the Institutional Review Board (IRB).

• Coordinates the development, implementation, and operation of policies and procedures designed to protect the rights and welfare of vertebrate animals used in research and teaching conducted under the auspices of Bowling Green State University.  This is largely accomplished through the activities of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).

• Coordinates the development, implementation, and operation of policies and procedures designed to ensure the responsible conduct of research, sponsored by Bowling Green State University,  involving recombinant DNA.  This is largely accomplished through the activities of the Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC).

If you are submitting a grant to a funding agency, depending upon whether you are working with humans, animals or recombinant DNA you will also need to submit an IRB application, IACUC protocol or IBC application respectively for review.  A copy of the grant you are submitting must be forwarded to the Office of Research Compliance (this is usually done by the Office of Sponsored Programs and Research) for comparison with the corresponding application/protocol and verification that the activities proposed in the grant match those included in the application/protocol.