MISSION OF THE INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD

New Mexico Tech's Institutional Review Board (IRB) is charged with protecting the rights and welfare of human research participants recruited to participate in research activities conducted at New Mexico Tech. The members who serve on the IRB are scientists and staff members from Tech, as well as non-affiliated members of the Socorro community.

Most of the human subjects research projects at NMT are eligible for either administrative or expedited review. The IRB meets as needed to review any projects that require full-board approval. All on-going research projects that involve human subjects are reviewed yearly, depending upon the level of risk.

• IRB Procedure
• What does the IRB do?
• IRB Member List
• FAQ

IRB FORMS, HANDBOOK, AND POLICY ON HSR

All of the IRB forms used by New Mexico Tech, as well as the IRB Handbook, and the Official Policy on Human Subjects Research, are available on this page for download.

FORMS

• IRB Application Form -- (WORD)    (PDF)     Fill out this form to request an IRB review of your research project.
• FORM A (Research Project Abstract) -- (WORD)    (PDF)    Use this form to describe your project and its use of human participants. Please attach FORM A to your IRB Application Form.
• Modification Request Form -- (WORD)    (PDF)    Use this form to request IRB approval of any modifications to your previously-approved research project.
• Annual Renewal Form -- (WORD)    (PDF)    Use this form to request an annual renewal of IRB approval for your multi-year project.
• Adverse Event Reporting Form -- (WORD)    (PDF)    Use this form to report unanticipated events or problems caused by or related to a human subject's participation in your research project. [Adverse events are extremely unlikely since NMT does not perform clinical research of any kind, but we make this form available as required by federal law.]

HANDBOOK and HSR POLICY

• Official IRB Handbook for NMT Researchers
• NMT's Official Policy on Human Subjects Research

ONLINE TRAINING COURSE FOR NMT RESEARCHERS

Federal law requires that ALL PROJECT PERSONNEL be trained in human research ethics before they start projects involving human subjects research. Please take the online course and print your Certificate of Completion at the end. A copy of the Certificate should be attached to your IRB Application Form when you submit your project for IRB review.

The NIH Office of Extramural Research's Protecting Human Subject Research Participants

Other Information for NMT Researchers

Guidelines and more information for PIs who perform survey research at New Mexico Tech:

• Guidelines for Classroom Projects
• American Association of Public Opinion Research Statement on anonymous questionaires and surveys
• Article by Ivor Pritchard explaining what is and is NOT research