- Local context form: The form relying research sites complete to provide site-specific information to the reviewing institutional review board
- Multisite study: A single human subject research project taking place at two or more distinct sites.
- Participating site: A site engaged in a multisite study.
- Reliance Agreement: A written agreement allowing an institution’s institutional review board to delegate its review of research to either another institution’s institutional review board or to an independent Institutional Review Board. The reliance agreement spells out each institution’s responsibilities. The reliance agreement must be finalized and signed before the research can begin. UAMS has a reliance agreement it can provide to sites relying on the UAMS Institutional Review Board (see also SMART IRB).
- Single / Central Institutional Review Board: A single institutional review board overseeing all sites involved in a multisite study. Also referred to as “xIRB,” “reviewing institutional review board,” or “institutional review board of record.”
- SMART IRB agreement: A prenegotiated reliance agreement that institutions can use to rely on each other for institutional review board review on a study-by-study basis. Hundreds of institutions, including UAMS, have signed on to the SMART IRB agreement. Participating institutions can use the SMART IRB agreement instead of site-specific reliance agreements.
Available Reliance Agreements
Reliance agreements, no matter which one you use, can be signed only by the institutional official or their designee.
- The SMART IRB agreement. This agreement is preferred when all study sites are SMART IRB signatories.
- Prenegotiated reliance agreements with certain institutional review boards, including the NCI’s institutional review board for oncology studies, and commercial institutional review boards including Advarra and Western Copernicus Group.
- The UAMS Reliance Agreement, which can be sent to sites wishing to rely on the UAMS Institutional Review Board if the SMART IRB agreement is not used.* Contact the UAMS Institutional Review Board office for information about this form.
- Other sites’ reliance agreements, which we can sign when we rely on another institution’s institutional review board.* Contact the UAMS Institutional Review Board office to arrange to use another site’s reliance agreement.
* Note that participating sites, including UAMS, may wish to have their legal offices review reliance agreements that have not been previously approved, which can lengthen the approval process.