What is SMART IRB?

SMART IRB is an initiative developed under an award from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (“NCATS”) of the National Institutes of Health (“NIH”) to support single Institutional Review Board (“IRB”) review in facilitation of multi-site human subjects research. SMART IRB includes:

• An IRB reliance agreement that permits eligible institutions that join it (“Participating Institutions”) to cede review of human subjects research to other Participating Institutions’ IRBs; and
• A set of standard operating procedures (SOPs) to guide implementation of the reliance relationship among Participating Institutions.
• A network of regional ambassadors to support adoption and implementation of IRB reliance across the nation
• Centralized online systems to support sign-on, reliance determinations, and harmonization (ongoing development)