Institutional Review Board

OUR MISSION

The Mission of the FAMU Institutional Review Board is to protect the welfare of human subject participants by compliance with the federal regulations governing the protection of human subjects, and facilitating the research efforts of FAMU faculty, students and staff. The Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) oversees the operation of the IRB, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) enforces regulations for the use of experimental drugs and devices. The IRB is a committee composed of scientists and laypersons who review all proposed FAMU human subjects research to ensure that the safety and welfare of subjects are protected. All human subject research requires review and approval by an IRB prior to subject recruitment and data collection, and prior to the use of extant data or private information. The FAMU IRB members have the responsibility for reviewing all research involving human subjects conducted by FAMU faculty, students, or staff, regardless of the source of funding.

Research Using Human Subjects
The Florida A&M University is committed to the ethical principles for the protection of human subjects in research as set forth in the Belmont Report of the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research (1979)

The ethical principles are:

• Respect for persons - which includes the requirement of a voluntary informed consent process
• Beneficence – which entails an obligation to protect persons from harm by minimizing risks and maximizing benefits
• Justice – which requires that selection of subjects be fair and equitable and that particular care be taken when working with populations (i.e. children, decisionally impaired) whose status puts them in a vulnerable position.