Institutional Review Board (IRB)
Office of the Provost
Mission statement
The mission of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Hamline University is to promote ethical and responsible research involving human participants by safeguarding the participants’ rights, welfare, and privacy in accordance with federal regulations and guidelines.
What is the IRB?
Faculty from across the university agree to serve on the IRB and represent the natural sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities, and business disciplines such as marketing and management. In keeping with federal guidelines, Hamline’s IRB has at least five members of varying backgrounds in order to provide a complete and thorough review of human participant research and its institutional, legal, scientific, and social implications. The IRB also includes at least one external member not affiliated with Hamline and at least one member outside of the natural sciences. The IRB is assisted administratively by two staff members and is overseen by the Provost.
Hamline’s IRB is registered with the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and approved by the Office of Human Research Protections of HHS. Hamline assures these federal agencies that all activities related to human participant research undertaken by Hamline researchers, regardless of the source of support, will be reviewed and accorded the appropriate approval by the IRB in compliance with federal regulations and the ethical principles as outlined in the Belmont Report. The Belmont Report’s primary purpose is to protect participants in research studies and consists of three principles: Beneficence, justice, and respect for persons.
Detailed information on the IRB function is available on the IRB Google Site.
