UROP Exempt Review
Dear Colleagues:
In an effort to streamline and facilitate review of human subjects research conducted by undergraduate researchers, the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) will now review and confirm Exempt research. This change will be effective with UROP’s 2017 Fall Call for Proposals.
The Lead Researcher must be an undergraduate with a Faculty Mentor/Sponsor. Undergraduates conducting research should review the UROP Exempt Review Protocol Narrative to determine if their research qualifies as exempt research and is eligible for UROP confirmation. If yes, students should complete the protocol narrative and submit it as part of their UROP Proposal.
There are a few exceptions that will require Institutional Review Board/Human Research Protections (IRB/HRP) confirmation, including:
- Research that qualifies for Expedited review.
- Research involving interaction with prisoners, with adult participants who may not be legally/mentally/cognitively competent to consent, or with individuals under the age of 18.
- Research involving deception or incomplete disclosure.
- Research involving access to or the use of Protected Health Information (PHI).
- Research where subject identifiers will be collected (e.g., name, email address, cell phone number) along with sensitive information (e.g., illegal behavior, or sensitive themes such as sexual experiences, physical abuse, alcohol or drug use, undesirable work behavior, or other information that may be embarrassing or psychologically painful) that could place subjects at risk for criminal or civil liability, or might be damaging to subjects’ financial standing, employability or reputation.
We are excited about this new collaborative process, which will further facilitate faculty-mentored undergraduate research at UCI.
For more information, please contact Karen Allen, Director, Research Protections, kallen@uci.edu, (949) 824-1558; or Said Shokair, Director, UROP, shokair@uci.edu, (949) 824-7701.
Pramod P. Khargonekar
Vice Chancellor for Research