The Charles River Campus (CRC) Institutional Review Board (IRB) is responsible for reviewing and approving research with human subjects that is conducted by CRC researchers. The purpose of the IRB is to protect the rights and welfare of research subjects and to assure that the research it approves is in accordance with ethical guidelines, federal regulations, state law, IRB policies and procedures, and best practices. BU researchers are responsible for carrying out the ethical conduct of research with human subjects in accordance with their approved protocols and the rules, regulations, and policies of the IRB.
Researchers on BU’s Medical Campus should make use of the BUMC IRB website. Learn more about the growing alignment of each campus and share your input on the IRB Alignment page.
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The Charles River Campus IRB requires all individuals involved in human subjects research to complete training in human subjects protection.
The CRC IRB is implementing Huron modules to facilitate conducting human subjects research. All CRC human subjects research projects will be created, submitted, reviewed, and maintained on the Huron IRB module. Explore the implementation timeline and more details here on our Huron Training & Updates hub.
We are pleased to announce that the Charles River Campus (CRC) Institutional Review Board (IRB) is working to implement Huron’s online submission tool to support human-subjects research administration on the CRC. This initiative aligns with campus-wide efforts to streamline research administration and follows successful implementations of Huron modules in other research components, including Financial Conflict […]
Boston University’s IRBs have put in place global reliance agreements to streamline multisite collaboration across the Charles River Campus (CRC), Boston Medical Center (BMC) and Boston University Medical Campus (BUMC). These agreements: Automatically apply to qualifying minimal‑risk collaborative research Simplify and standardize the reliance process for faculty and staff working across the campuses Take effect […]
Boston University's Institutional Review Boards (IRB) announce a new, streamlined process for Charles River Campus (CRC) students collaborating on human subjects research at Boston University Medical Campus (BUMC) and/or Boston Medical Center (BMC). What's Changed Previously, each research study involving CRC students collaborating on a BMC/BUMC study required a reliance agreement between the CRC IRB […]
TO: Boston University Faculty, Staff and Graduate Students FROM: The Charles River Campus Institutional Review Board DATE: May 6, 2025 SUBJECT: Enhancing Participant Privacy and Confidentiality Recent federal actions and proposals have raised new concerns about privacy among Boston University researchers and research participants. During this time of transition, the BU Charles River Campus Institutional […]
TO: Boston University Principal Investigators FROM: Charles River Campus Institutional Review Board DATE: April 3, 2025 SUBJECT: Research Approved on a Triennial Basis As a reminder to investigators who have studies that have been approved for a period of three (3) years, a submission of a progress report is required on a triennial basis (every […]
The Boston University Institutional Review Board (IRB) has issued updated guidance to clarify its policies and procedures for changing the overall Principal Investigator (PI) on active studies. Those individuals looking to initiate this change should follow these steps: Complete and Submit a Staff Amendment Form: This form should include information about the current PI and […]
The Charles River Campus Institutional Review Board (CRC IRB) is discontinuing annual progress reports for expedited research and moving instead to a triennial review cycle. For research teams, this will go into effect at the next expedited annual progress report review and will apply to all newly approved expedited research going forward. Annual continuing review […]