IRB and the Office of Human Research Ethics
Announcements
- October 7, 2021: Update to OHRE SOP # 1401 – Promptly Reportable Information
- June 7, 2021: Announcement on Cassie Myers Departure
- May 6, 2021: IRBIS Update
- May 5, 2021: Discontinuation of COVID Information Sheet
- June 10, 2020: OHRE’s Coronavirus Update
- June 1, 2020: Slides from Resumption of Human Subject Research Q&A Zoom Session
- UNC’s implementation of the Revised Common Rule went into effect on January 21, 2019.
- For older items, see the News section.
The UNC Office of Human Research Ethics/Institutional Review Board (OHRE/IRB) needs you! Please click here to learn more about the UNC IRB Membership Drive.Introduction to Human Research Subject Protection at UNC
Last year, over one million people took part in research studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. Who are these participants, who is studying them and why?
Organizational Structure
The Office of Human Research Ethics (OHRE) is responsible for ethical and regulatory oversight of research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that involves human subjects. OHRE supports and oversees the work of the Institutional Review Boards (IRBs).
IRB Boards A through F review research in a wide variety of areas:
- Biomedical Research: School of Medicine, School of Pharmacy, UNC Hospitals, and research in other units that involves biomedical interventions. Expertise is focused on medical, surgical, physiological or pharmacological studies. Includes research with drugs, devices, counseling, or other interventions. Studies that require dental or oncology expertise are reviewed by Biomedical Boards B or D.
- Behavioral and Public Health-Nursing Research: such as psychology, child development, education, anthropology, information and library science, social work, journalism, and many other disciplines under Academic Affairs, as well as studies from the School of Public Health, School of Nursing, nursing-related studies at UNC Hospitals, non-medical research from the Injury Prevention Research Center, Carolina Population Center, Health Promotion Disease Prevention, and Sheps Center. Expertise is focused on research in behavioral and social sciences, the humanities, epidemiology and other research in a public health or nursing context.
- As well as expertise in reviewing Unanticipated Problems Involving Risks to Subjects or Others (UPIRSO) and other compliance issues, Humanitarian Use Devices (HUDs), emergency research on single patients under a single subject treatment IND.