Overview

In an effort to meet the goal of the Office of Human Research Protections (OHRP) to provide appropriate protections of the rights and welfare of human subjects while reducing administrative burdens for multisite research, the University of California developed:

The MOU for IRB Review of Multi-Campus Human Subject Research establishes a reliance agreement among the Human Research Protection Programs (HRPP) at the ten campuses of the University of California, the UC Division of Agriculture Natural Resources (ANR), and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The MOU allows an HRPP at any of the UC campuses to rely upon the review and approval, or determination of exemption, of human subject research by an IRB at another UC campus. The MOU (pdf) and MOU Implementation Procedures (pdf) are available on the UC Office of the President Research Policy Analysis and Coordination website.

All studies covered by the MOU require the use of the UC IRB Reliance Registry. The Registry is a communication tool that facilitates the sharing of IRB protocol approvals for multisite studies that involve human subject research among the UC campuses.

The Registry was developed by UC Office of the President Research Policy Analysis and Coordination office in partnership with the IRB offices at all UC campuses, ANR and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The Registry was tested by faculty researchers at several UC campuses, and continues to be refined to meet the needs of research faculty and IRB staff.

Using the UC IRB Reliance Registry

The following documents provide detailed instructions on using the UC IRB Reliance Registry:

Completion of a study registration in the UC IRB Reliance Registry is only one step to rely on another UC IRB’s review. Please see the Registry FAQs for an overview of using the UC IRB Reliance Registry.

Campus Local IRB Contact Reliance Instructions Resources
Berkeley irb_reliance@berkeley.edu UC Berkeley Reliance instructions.

Note: Researchers will need to submit 2 forms and CITI training certificates to irb_reliance@berkeley.edu.
Davis HS-IRBreliance@ucdavis.edu UC Davis Reliance instructions.

Note: UC Davis will not serve as the Reviewing IRB or Relying IRB for exempt research.
Irvine irbreliance@uci.edu UC Irvine Reliance instructions.

Note: Researchers will need to submit the UCI Reliance Registration Form and have completed the required CITI training.
Los Angeles irbreliance@research.ucla.edu UC Los Angeles Reliance instructions.
Merced irboffice@ucmerced.edu UC Merced Reliance instructions.
Riverside IRB@ucr.edu UC Riverside Reliance instructions.
San Diego irbrely@ucsd.edu UC San Diego Reliance instructions.

Note: UC San Diego will not execute a reliance agreement for exempt research.
San Francisco irb@ucsf.edu UC San Francisco Reliance instructions.
Santa Barbara hsc@research.ucsb.edu UC Santa Barbara Reliance instructions.
Santa Cruz orca@ucsc.edu UC Santa Cruz Reliance instructions.
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab harc@lbl.gov Lawrence Berkeley National Lab instructions.

Note: If you need to change a name in the table on this page, please contact ORGS-IRBRELIANCE-SA@ucop.edu.