Institutional Research Review Board

The IRB serves as an independent body that ensures subjects in research are protected from harm and injustice, according to Federal and professional guidelines.  The board has taken the charge to ensure institutional compliance with National Research Act (45 CFR 46) and adherence to the basic ethical principles identified by the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research and presented in its Belmont Report.

    The IRB will only review research, defined as “a systematic investigation, including research development, testing and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge” (45 CFR part 46 s. 102d).  Generalizable knowledge is knowledge that you want to apply to people outside of your sample of subjects.  For example, if a psychology professor wants to examine personality with the intention of presenting it at a regional psychology conference, then this is a study that must be reviewed by the IRB.   Because the study involves the “testing and evaluation” of personality and is intended to contribute to “generalizable knowledge,” it is subject to IRB review.  As a second example, if the enrollment manager wants to collect information about the GPA of freshmen at SNHU to see how it relates with their retention rates, that is not subject to IRB review.   This is because it is not intended to lead to knowledge beyond SNHU college freshmen.  In addition, any data collected in the classroom to be used only as part of a class activity does not have to be reviewed by the IRB.

     Any research proposal that is potentially funded by external grants or sponsored by an outside agency meets the definition of generalizability and is therefore subject to IRB review.  A draft of the grant proposal, providing the goals, methods and expected outcomes of research should be provided before submission of the grant proposal to an outside agency.  Submissions must be received at least two weeks before the grant deadline.

If you are interested in submitting a proposal to the IRB, please refer to the IRB Policies and Procedures Manual (see the section entitled “IX. Application Instructions”).Please send application materials to the VPAA’s office C/O Deborah Wilcox.

• IRB Assurance Form (PDF 33 kb)
• IRB Notification Form (PDF 40 kb)
• IRB Policies and Procedures Manual  (PDF 174 kb)