Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How long will it take to get my protocol or amendment approved?
Most protocols / amendments are reviewed within 7-15 days once the IACUC Office has verified that the submission is complete. However, this timeline depends greatly on the speed of IACUC member review and the investigator’s response to IACUC clarifications.
Some protocols and amendments will require additional review time as they must be reviewed at the monthly convened IACUC meeting. These include:
- studies involving unrelieved pain or distress (and some types of restraint),
- protocols using death as an endpoint,
- studies with multiple major survival surgeries,
- inclusions of major survival surgery on a USDA-covered species (all mammals excluding mice of the genus Mus and rats of the genus Rattus bred exclusively for research),
- inclusion of non-human primates (unless the study is strictly observational)
- protocols on which any IACUC member(s) requests convened committee review.
The IACUC meets on the 3rd or 4th Friday of each month. A calendar of meeting dates is available here. Investigators should expect to receive correspondence regarding the outcome of a review within 2 days of the review completion.
For additional information and detail regarding the IACUC review procedures and expected review timelines, click here.
