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As many of you know, the NIH recently changed
its grants policy regarding the timing of institutional verification
of Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) approval
of procedures involving animals. Previously, it was necessary
to have such approval within 60 days of submission of competing
grant applications for the application to be reviewed by the Initial
Review Group (IRG). Now institutional verification of IACUC approval
is not necessary until it clear that the application is about
to be funded and "Just-in-Time" update information is
requested. As a consequence of this new policy, the Johns Hopkins
IACUC will verify that a PI has one or more approved protocols
that cover the work proposed in a grant application only as part
of the Just-in-Time certifications and not at the time of grant
submission. This change not only saves time for the IACUC, but
also hastens the processing of your grant in the Office of Research
Administration. The NIH now asks that Block 5.a.("IACUC approval
date") on the 398 application have the word "pending"
inserted to indicate that confirmation of IACUC approval will
occur "pending award." In contrast to the previous policy,
the word "pending" in that box will not be a bar for
review by the IRG.
In the context of this new policy, PIs should
be aware that the Scientific Review Administrators for IRGs will
be scrutinizing the Vertebrate Animal section (F) of each grant
application to verify that it includes answers to each of the
five questions asked on the PHS application instructions. If this
information is deemed incomplete, the grant likely will be returned
to the PI unreviewed. Please ensure that your answers to those
five questions are complete and fully contained within Section
F, even if the information appears elsewhere in the application.
Thank you for your understanding of
these policy changes. If you have questions, please contact the
Animal Care and Use Committee via Ms. Kinta Diven of (7-3743)
or Ms. Trish Matos (7-3744).
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