Institutional Review Board (IRB)

UTRGV Federal Wide Assurance is FWA000000805

The Institutional Review Board at UTRGV is responsible for the oversight of all research involving human participants. They help to ensure that all research participants are treated fairly and ethically and to assist researchers at UTRGV in the inclusion of human subjects' protections in both their study designs and implementation.

• The IRB responsibility is to review and approve research protocols involving human participants to ensure that they adhere to ethical standards, federal regulations and institutional policies.
• The IRB evaluates the potential risks and benefits associated with research participation. It ensures that the risks are minimized and reasonable in relation to the anticipated benefits of the research.
• The IRB provides guidance and education to researchers on ethical conduct in research involving human participants. They also help ensure that participants understand the nature of the research and their rights through informed consent processes.

*If you already have an account on tick@lab set up and are having issues accessing your protocols, please contact the Office of Research Compliance. This issue may be a result of a recent update to the system, and can be fixed manually by our staff.

*For guidance on using tick@lab to submit your request, please refer to the training materials linked below. For additional technical assistance, please contact irb@utrgv.edu.

• Protocols are reviewed in the order in which they are received. Please allow 7–10 business days for the IRB to complete its review. Note that delays may occur during periods of high submission volume or depending on the level of review required (e.g., exempt, expedited, or full board).

• To aid in enhancing efficiency with application processing the IRB is instituting a deadline for responding to review stipulations. Research teams will have 90 days to respond or request an extension before the application is administratively closed.

• To aid researchers in reducing the administrative burden the IRB will be following up with all researchers with not human subject determinations, exempt and expedited studies to verify if they are active. These annual check-ins will inquire as to if the study is still active, if there have been any changes since approval, and if the study can be closed.

• To support timely reviews and minimize confusion, the ORC will administratively close studies that have remained in “Draft” status in Tick@lab for more than six months without submission to the IRB. Investigators wishing to resubmit their study at a later date should contact the IRB at irb@utrgv.edu for guidance on duplicating the submission in Tick@lab.

• To aid researchers in navigating Tick@lab we have created a supportive document. This reference document outlines the statuses in Tick@lab. This document provides clear descriptions of each status used in the Tick@lab system to help users understand and navigate their projects, submissions, and tasks efficiently. Where is my application?

• To support researchers in the application submission process we have created a reference document. The IRB Application Requirements Checklist. A checklist designed to assist in the IRB application submission process to enhance the quality of application submissions. IRB Application Checklist 

IRB Office Hours
Days/times: 1^st & 3^rd Wednesdays in person from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm & 2^nd & 4^th Wednesday via Teams 
Location: Rio Bank (MRIO 4.309) & Teams Invite
POC: Mariana Hernandez  mariana.Hernandez@utrgv.edu   

We’re excited to announce the release of 11 new micro-tutorials designed to support your research efforts.

• tick@lab – Orientation - Read this first
• tick@lab – Training for New Project Submission
• tick@lab – Training for Amendments (Modifications)
• tick@lab - Training for Continuations (Extensions) Submission
• tick@lab - How to Locate an Approval Memo