IRB Members

The IRB shall consist of at least five regular voting members of varying backgrounds. In order to promote complete and adequate review of research activities commonly conducted at Benedictine College, members of the IRB shall be appointed with consideration of expertise, race, gender, cultural background, and sensitivity to community attitudes.

There shall be at least one member whose primary concerns are in scientific areas relevant to the types of research typically reviewed by the IRB. There shall also be at least one member whose primary concerns are in nonscientific areas. Finally, there shall be one member who has no affiliation with Benedictine College, and who is not part of the immediate family of a person who is affiliated with the College. This individual should be knowledgeable about the local community, and invulnerable to intimidation by the other members of the IRB or by College administrators. Consideration should be given to those who are able to speak on behalf of communities from which Benedictine College research participants are likely to be drawn.

The IRB may, in its discretion, invite individuals with competence in special areas to assist in the review of issues which require expertise beyond that possessed by the membership of the IRB. These are not voting members of the IRB, but contribute only through their consultation.

The Chair of the IRB is appointed by the Dean of the College. The Chair serves for a renewable three-year term, convenes meetings of the full IRB as needed, develops IRB policy in collaboration with the Board, serves as the point of contact for applicants. The Chair, as do all other IRB members, recuses himself or herself from consideration and voting on projects in which he or she has a conflicting interest.

Regular IRB members and the Chair are expected to commit to a 3-year term and will be appointed on a rotating basis to ensure continuity and, during that time, to fulfill certain duties. These duties will be described prior to appointment and each IRB member is expected to fully understand the duties of IRB members prior to accepting appointment as an IRB member.

IRB members are recruited by the Dean of the College and the IRB Chair and serve for a three‑year renewable term.  IRB membership is staggered so that the board always has more experienced members serving to advise newer members.  Board members are expected to review applications at the request of the IRB Chair, to include individual review of applications that qualify for exempt or expedited status as well as projects that require review by the full board. Board members may be asked to resign if they are unable or unwilling to meet their attendance and project application review responsibilities. When replacement is called for, the IRB Chair works to ensure continued diversity while at the same time maintaining standards of knowledge and experience necessary to adequately and fairly evaluate applications for human participant research.

New members of the IRB are expected to watch the training videos provided in the IRB course in Blackboard. To assist new members to understand the review process, the IRB Chair also provides sample applications and a suggested model to use when reviewing applications to facilitate new members' familiarization with the review process.

No Institutional Review Board (IRB) member may participate in the IRB’s initial or continuing review of research in which the member has a conflicting interest, except to provide information requested by the IRB. A conflict of interest exists when the member is involved as an investigator on the research, is listed as a supervising faculty member, or possesses a professional association or significant financial interest with potential to bias the design, conduct, reporting or reviewing of the research.

Members of the IRB must disclose potential conflicts of interest with research submitted for review, and must exempt themselves from all correspondence involving IRB reviews of research in which they have a conflicting interest.