3-67 Off-Site Collaborative Research Activities
About CMU's "Guidance for CMU research activities conducted at a collaborating institution policy"
This policy ensures that CMU faculty, staff and students conducting research in collaboration with other institutions continue to comply with all applicable laws and regulations. All CMU-affiliated scholarly activity must adhere to these laws regardless of where the activity occurs.
NOTE ABOUT PDF VERSION: The PDF is the official text of the policy. If there are any incongruities between the text of the HTML version and the text within the PDF file, the PDF will be considered accurate and overriding.
- Effective date of this revision: September 15, 2021
- Contact for more information: Office of Research and Graduate Studies
BACKGROUND
The increasing prevalence of research collaborations has prompted the development of mechanisms to facilitate and document those arrangements, including ensuring appropriate review by oversight committees. To effectively conduct its responsibility for research oversight, Central Michigan University (CMU) maintains Institutional Review Boards for human subjects research (University Policy 5-4), an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee for animal subjects research (IACUC Policy P-004-03), and Institutional Biosafety Committees for research with recombinant and/or synthetic nucleic acid molecules (University Policy 3-47). CMU’s Vice President for Research and Innovation has overall responsibility under this policy and has the authority to delegate such activities necessary to fulfill these duties.
PURPOSE
To ensure that research and teaching activities involving CMU faculty, staff and students conducted at collaborating institutions comply with all applicable regulations.
DEFINITIONS
Off-site: For the purposes of this policy, defined as a location used by CMU researchers (e.g., research laboratory) at a collaborating institution.
POLICY
This policy is applicable to all research activities conducted by, sponsored by, or under CMU’s purview. United States laws on human subjects research, the Animal Welfare Act, Public Health Service Policy, etc., require that activities involving human or animal subjects, or recombinant and/or synthetic nucleic acid molecules must first be approved by an Institutional Review Board, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, and/or Institutional Biosafety Committee. In addition, transfer of equipment, samples, or data to international destinations may be subject to export control regulations and restrictions.
PROCEDURE
In many cases. CMU will accept approval of research protocols and oversight of collaborative research conducted at the collaborating institution. However, situations exist that may require additional CMU involvement and review. Accordingly, researchers must contact the Office of Research Compliance or the Office of Sponsored Programs prior to initiating collaborative research activities.
Examples of additional requirements that may be determined:
- CMU has provided formal guarantees to the Department of Health and Human Services that it will follow mandated procedures to oversee research involving live vertebrate animals. If the collaborating institution does not maintain a Public Health Service Animal Welfare Assurance, additional review and approval procedures may be required.
- A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) or Reliance Agreement may be required to allow research projects to collaborate with outside institutions.
Central Michigan University reserves the right to make exceptions to, modify or eliminate this policy and or its content. This document supersedes all previous policies, procedures, or guidelines relative to this subject.