Research Performance Sites
An OSU IRB may only approve human subjects research activities at locations for which the Board has an understanding of the local research context and the University has oversight mechanisms in place. OSU maintains a list of approved research sites where OSU IRBs have both oversight of the personnel involved in research and knowledge of the local research context. The list can be found at:
Approved Research Performance Sites - updated 07/15/08
Under the University’s Federalwide Assurance, OSU employees, staff, and students may not “engage” in research activities at sites that are not on the list of approved OSU research performance sites, except as explained below. Persons are considered to be engaged in human subjects research when they:
- Intervene or interact with living individuals for research purposes;
- Obtain individually identifiable private information for research purposes; or
- Receive a direct federal grant to support human subjects research.
Since OSU is automatically engaged whenever an OSU faculty member receives federal funding for research involving human subjects, an OSU IRB must review and approve the research, unless formal arrangements have been made to defer review to another IRB. This is required even if there will be no research activities performed at any Ohio State site.
Limited use of non-OSU facilities (e.g., schools, nursing homes, businesses, etc.) for some research activities may be approved by an OSU IRB. However, the facility or the facility’s personnel at the non-OSU site must not engage (e.g., recruit participants, obtain informed consent, collect data, etc.) in the research.
When more than limited use of outside facilities or involvement of individuals who are not OSU employees or students that would engage them in research activities is proposed, additional review requirements apply. When applicable, the external site’s IRB may oversee involvement of its personnel in the study. When the non-OSU site does not have an IRB or to avoid duplicative IRB reviews, an OSU IRB may serve as the “IRB of record” with knowledge of the local context and appropriate agreements in place. In such cases, inter-institutional agreements, investigator agreements, or redesign of the project may be required to perform the research. Contact ORRP for more information.
Additional guidance on this topic is available from OHRP.
