CU Institutional Review Board

The Institutional Review Board (IRB) is an administrative body established by Central University Statutes to protect the rights and welfare of human research subjects recruited to participate in research activities conducted under the auspices of Central University and other institutions with which it is affiliated.

The IRB is charged with the following responsibility:

receiving research proposals from Deans of Faculty/School and or Research and Conferences Committee and ensure that appropriate steps are taken to safeguard the privacy, confidentiality, rights, and privileges of research participants;
assessing the ethics of any research project and its methods and require researchers to respond to queries;
promoting informed and voluntary participation by prospective research participants who are themselves capable of making such choices (or, if that is not possible, required informed permission given by a suitable proxy);
maximize the safety of research participants;
report annually to the Vice Chancellor on its activities as well as forward its recommendations on any research project submitted to the Research and Conference Committee of Central University.

Ethics Principles

The review by the IRB is guided by the under-listed four basic principles espoused in the Belmont Report (The Belmont Report | HHS.gov).

Autonomy: Respect for persons. This is the derivative principle for informed consent.
Beneficence: Do good to research participants.
Non-maleficence: Avoid harm to research participants.
Distributive Justice: Research participants should be fairly selected. Thus, the burden and benefits of research should be fair.

Who must submit research protocols to the Central University IRB?

CU Staff: Professors/Research fellows, postdoctoral fellows, research team members, and students who intend to conduct human research.
Faculty and students affiliated with the Central University who intends to conduct research involving humans.
Researchers affiliated with other non-governmental organizations or other institutions may also submit their protocols for review.

All protocols from CU Staff require prior approval by the School/Faculty Board. Student Protocol must be approved by their Department/Faculty/School before they are reviewed by the IRB.