Through an agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services the University of Chicago assures that all research involving human subjects conducted at the University of Chicago or by University faculty, students, or staff, will be conducted in accordance with the ethical principles spelled out in the Belmont Report. Our agreement assures that the University complies with all federal regulations and policies for prior review and continuing approval by an IRB of federally-funded research. The University has chosen as matter of institutional policy to extend such review to non-federally-funded research.

The agreement is called a Federalwide Assurance. Questions or issues concerning the FWA or general human subjects practices may be referred to Carol Zuiches at (773) 702-8604 or czuiches@uchicago.edu. The University Of Chicago, under an agreement with Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), and as operator of ANL for the US Department Of Energy, provides oversight for research involving human subjects at ANL or by ANL investigators, in accordance with the terms & conditions of the University's FWA.

Day-to-day responsibility for the use of human subjects in research is handled by three administrative units. The BSD/Hospitals IRB handles all biomedical and behavioral research within the Biological Sciences Division, the University of Chicago Hospitals and Argonne National Laboratory. The School of Social Service Administration (SSA) IRB serves SSA and Chapin Hall. The Social and Behavioral Sciences IRB handles all other social and behavioral sciences research and any human subjects research in other academic areas (e.g., Graduate School of Business, Humanities, Law School), for all units at the University other than the Biological Sciences, SSA and Chapin Hall.

Anita B. Goodnight is the contact person for the Social Service Administration/Chapin Hall IRB. She can be reached at (773) 834-0402, abg@uchicago.edu. For more information, please see the Social Service Administration IRB website.