The federal Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) requires institutions like ours to maintain a current Federalwide Assurance (FWA) for the Protection of Human Subjects. Outside IRBs that review research done here, industry sponsors, and others sometimes ask study teams for the current FWA number and expiration date. (Of course the federal government gives each FWA a number! It’s the federal government, after all! Just keep in mind that the FWA number is NOT the same as the IORG number, which is the number under which we register our IRBs with OHRP.)
We recently updated our FWA to reflect human research protection program staffing changes. Our FWA number remains the same (FWA00001119), but the expiration date has changed to Sept. 10, 2024.
Note also that our FWA information is available 24/7 on the IRB’s website. Click on the “compliance statement” link under “About” to access it.