Alternative Training for Special Circumstances
Under certain circumstances, the Office of Research Services -Research Protections may approve an alternative human subjects training program to satisfy the DePaul requirements. For example, the CITI training program may be impractical or inappropriate for field workers or staff to complete or for research protocols involving community-based participatory research. In these instances, the PI may create an educational program focused on the specific research protocol and the role of the research staff. The educational program plan for research personnel and the content outline for the training would need to be submitted and approved as part of the initial protocol submission to the IRB.
Verifying Required Education for a Listed Person on an IRB Application
The PI should submit a list of all personnel that will be involved in the conduct of the research using the Co-Investigators and Key Research Personnel Form. When the PI signs the assurance page of the IRB application s/he is certifying that each person listed will complete the required training and that her/his research records will contain copies of the educational training documentation. When the application is received by ORS, study personnel training completion will be confirmed by ORS and these persons will be considered certified to conduct human subject research.
If someone listed as personnel has not completed training at the time the application is submitted to the IRB, they will be reminded to do so. Final protocol approval will not be granted until all personnel has completed training. If the PI wishes to add additional research personnel after initial approval of the research protocol, these persons must be added to the research project via an amendment. If ORS staff cannot verify training for anyone listed on the protocol, the person will not be approved to be part of the conduct of the research study.