University of Connecticut at Storrs (UConn-Storrs) and University of Connecticut Health Center (UCHC) are committed to improving education of faculty, staff, and students in regard to participation of human subjects in research and in guaranteeing compliance with federal regulations.
Specific aims are to: (1) enhance education and training activities for investigators and collaborating institutions, (2) improve networking among units on each campus and between the two campuses and (3) upgrade infrastructure and improve audit and compliance functions.
Aims 1 and 2 also include specific initiatives to provide education and training to state and local agencies with a particular focus on those involved with health-risk behavioral change (i.e., HIV, substance abuse prevention, public health, etc.) as well as local schools, UCHC's affiliated hospitals and social service agencies. The campuses will continue to cooperate to enhance education and training activities for investigators, staff and collaborating institutions. UConn-Storrs plans a large scale seminar, including off-campus collaborating institutions, to explore the merits of collaboration. The seminar will explore the establishment of commonly accepted standards and improved efficiency of review when there is collaboration. UCHC plans several initiatives to enhance education including a seminar series developed in collaboration with the General Clinical Research Center (GCRC). The campuses will work together to develop an IRB member training module that will be shared with collaborating institutions. Both campuses will also expand and further develop educational materials for the research community including Spanish language versions of a Subject's Rights and Child's brochures. In addition, both campuses also seek to continue development of auditing and compliance functions. Auditing services will also be offered to collaborating institutions through the UConn-Storrs Helpline program. Further improvements to infrastructure are also planned as each campus begins the implementation process for the InfoEd IRB management and protocol development modules. The two campuses will continue to share expertise gained in their focused projects with each other and with our collaborating institutions.
