I am curious about whether anyone is working on establishing IRBs outside of universities? I have read a little bit about it and would very much like to learn from any organizations that aren’t universities that have gone down this route (and what did you learn, etc.). My reading was greeted by these folks
who seem to have done it (I have reached out to them by e-mail). Let me know if you experienced with any of this please.
Hi Bruno. I haven’t worked with them in years, but I know that SSG in Los Angeles also has a community IRB. Hope this helps and good luck! Community IRB - SSG Research & Evaluation Team
The Public Housing Association of Residents here in Charlottesville has started a community review board with some help and advice from the UVA Equity Center.
https://virginiaequitycenter.org/residents-respectful-research-rrr
We are working with BRANY IRBManager - BRANY
They have been very responsive. Happy so far.
@scholz thanks so much for this link!
@sfarash welcome to this group and thanks so much. I will look into it. Can you say why you’ve gone in this direction please?
Hi @Bruno , We decided to go with this IRB because we wanted one that is independent from a university. Our project meets the definition of “research” because we want to produce generalizable information. The answers we collect in this project are also going to be shared outside of our organization. The project we are doing isn’t just for quality improvement internally.
We also want to be able to publish in journals and other public places showing that our activities were monitored by an accredited research ethics and review board.
Now that I’m typing out my answer, I’m realizing that I’m not sure if you’re asking why we went with BRANY or why we are using an IRB in general. If you have further questions on either topic, happy to try to answer them.
Thank you and to clarify (sorry it was muddled!) I am interested in the second question—why BRANY?
Thank you!
Bruno