Research involving human study includes the collection of data about or from human subjects and the use of existing data or specimens. Per the office of UAB Institutional Review Board for Human Use (IRB) approval is required for all research involving human subjects and must be reviewed and approved by the UAB IRB before the research begins. This requirement applies to all human subject research conducted by faculty, staff, and students, on- and off-campus, regardless of funding.
IRB website: http://www.uab.edu/research/administration/offices/irb/Pages/Home.aspx

Research involving animal use for research, teaching and testing conducted at or by UAB requires IACUC approval.
IACUC website: http://www.uab.edu/research/administration/offices/iacuc/Pages/default.aspx

Yes. All students doing research that involves human subjects need BOTH the appropriate IRB training in the protection of human subjects AND an approved IRB protocol before the research can begin.   All students doing research that involves animals need both the appropriate IACUC training AND an approved IACUC protocol before the research can begin.
For more information, see http://www.uab.edu/medicine/mssrp/tip-sheet-humansanimal-subjects

Your mentor is the best source for this information. Your mentor will let you know if your research project requires IRB or IACUC approval and direct you to which IRB or IACUC training is necessary.

Prior to completing your IRB or IACUC training, confirm with your mentor what training is required. Each project is different and your mentor can confirm which required training is necessary for your particular research project.

If your research involves working with humans or animals, you are required to enroll if you have these work exposures:

• Have direct contact with animals, their viable tissues, body fluids, wastes or living quarters. This includes, but is not limited to, Animal Care Staff, Investigators, laboratory staff, and some Maintenance and Environmental Services personnel.
• Work in the laboratory or have direct contact with material of human origin.
• Have direct contact with material capable of causing disease or injury in humans.
• Have direct contact with raw sewage through plumbing activities.
• Are exposed to excessive levels of noise (>85 db).

Yes, you can submit an application to be considered for funding, however, if approval is warranted the approval must be on file before you can begin research on your project.  Unless an exception is made, the IRB or IACUC approval must be on file before you can get paid during the summer.

It takes several months to write, submit, and receive IRB/IACUC approval.  Therefore, there is not enough time between notification of funding and the start of your summer project to write, submit, and receive approval.  Therefore, in order to assume that you can start your project (and get a paycheck) at the beginning of the summer, we request that you start the IRB/IACUC approval and training process before you know if you will receive an award. 

Per NIH Guidelines, for Ruth L. Kirschstein National Service Short-Term Institution, trainees are required to pursue research training for 2 months (8 weeks) on a full-time basis, devoting at least 30-40 hours per week to the program.

In addition to any IRB or IACUC training (if applicable) you are required to complete Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training components (required by NIH funded programs), workshops and scientific research events. In addition, RCR training completed for summer research is good for 4 years and satisfies the RCR requirement needed for scholarly activity (medical students 3rd year). Information about doing RCR training will be provided to you at the beginning of the summer.

Students conducting summer research have an opportunity to present their work at UAB Heersink School of Medicine Medical Student Research Day (MSRD) held annually at UAB. UAB HSOM MSRD takes place in the fall after summer research is completed. Please check with the summer program that you participate in to determine if a presentation at HSOM MSRD is required.

In some cases electronic devices may be warranted; however, in general, meetings are meant to be interactive with the instructor as well as peer to peer.

The main concern with a student who is not in good standing or on academic probation is that the summer research programs are full-time commitments.  Therefore, if a student is needing to do remedial work during the summer (i.e. remediate; retake a test, etc.) then we want the student to focus on that for the majority of their time.  If you will be repeating any coursework/making up any tests prior to the summer start date, then you we will need to assess your eligibility.  If you are recycling after May 1st, then you will not be eligibile for summer research opportunities. We will be in contact to determine an appropriate pathway based on your current UAB HSOM MS1 standing.

The 5PM deadline applies to receipt of the student portion of the application. All applications received by the deadline are eligible for review for summer research funding. The mentor portion of the application can be received after the March 31, 2024 11:59PM deadline; however, it should be noted that applications are considered incomplete (and will therefore not be reviewed) until the mentor has submitted their portion of the application.

Any project that requires IRB/IACUC approval must list all person(s) working on the project. Please check directly with your mentor about how to be added to the approved protocol.

In general, we do not give extensions to the deadline because we usually have more applications than we can fund that are actually submitted on time.  Therefore you have two options. One would be to proceed with the summer research, but not be paid by one of the summer programs (you still get the benefit of doing the summer research; however, the downside is that obviously you don’t get a paycheck). The other option would be to check back in 1-2 weeks (If we do not receive enough applications by the deadline to fill all of our summer slots, then at that time you would be given permission to submit a late application for funding).

Student trainees who are paid from NIH funded training grants for their research projects are required to register for and set-up an eRA commons account. Eligible participants in NIH funded programs will receive specific information on account set-up after award notification.