Scientific Review Committee (SRC)

As of January 1st, 2009 the SRC has been divided into two committees, SRC-A and SRC-B, each consisting of eight members. SRC-A meets on the 2nd Thursday of every month and SRC-B meets on the 4th Thursday of every month. The Administrator of the committees serves as a bridge between the committees and the UCI Institutional Review Board (IRB-A and IRB-B).

Any questions regarding the new submission process contact the SRC Administrator:
Lisa Twachtmann • ltwachtm@uci.edu • (714) 456-3779

BACKGROUND
Concerns of national and local agencies, e.g., Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Office of Inspector General (OIG), Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP), regarding the implementation and conduct of clinical research have become highly debated in the nation over the past few years. The ethical principles delineated in the Belmont Report require research involving human subjects to have scientific merit, to provide potential benefit to the participant and/or society with appropriate risk-to-benefit ratio, and to be conducted by qualified investigators. To implement these requirements, the Institute for Clinical and Translational Science in the Office of Research (OR) at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) established the Scientific Review Committees (SRC).

PURPOSE
The Scientific Review Committees shall assure that research studies conducted in the ICTS have scientific validity, feasibility, statistical relevance, and potential benefit to the participant and/or to the society, and are conducted by qualified investigators.

The SRC shall assure that:

• The research protocols’ methods and procedures are consistent with sound scientific design.
• The study design can be reasonably expected to answer the proposed question/s.
• The knowledge expected to result from the proposed research is possible with the study design and methods.
• The proposed research has the potential of translational application of new findings.

The aim of the SRC is to provide expeditious, effective, and user-friendly peer review of new research proposals of UCI Investigators

Thorough peer review of a research study is intended to assure that investigators are given appropriate guidance for the design, validation, and conduct of their research protocol.

SRC REVIEW CATEGORIES
The SRC shall review all research protocols submitted for approval to IRB, regardless of the IRB category i.e., “exempt”, “expedited”, or “full committee review”.

The Lead Researcher is responsible for submitting his/her research protocol for scientific review to IRB and to SRC.

The SRC shall review the following types of studies:

1. All COHS Investigator-initiated studies that have not had a scientific peer review.
2. All UCI studies requesting ICTS resources of any kind, regardless of their scientific review status.
3. Any study using COHS resources.
4. Any study of UCI faculty requesting peer scientific review from ICTS-SRC.