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The ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Institutional Review Board (IRB) has released a new exempt protocol template for initial submissions to the IRB on SpartaIRB. This template can be used when:

• a faculty member believes their research may meet one or more of the exemption criteria;
• the research involves less than minimal risk; and
• the research does not utilize protected health information, as defined at .

The following categories of research are defined as exempt by regulation:

• Research conducted in established or commonly accepted educational settings, involving normal educational practices.
• Research involving the use of educational tests (cognitive, diagnostic, aptitude, achievement), survey procedures, interview procedures or observation of public behavior.
• Research involving subjects who are elected or appointed public officials, or candidates for public office.
• Research involving the collection or study of existing data, documents, records, pathological specimens, or diagnostic specimens, if the information is recorded in such a manner that the participants cannot be identified, directly or through identifiers linked to the participants.
• Research and demonstration projects which are conducted by or subject to the approval of Federal Department or Agency heads.
• Taste and food quality evaluation and consumer acceptance studies.

See further information on this regulation at . The new exempt protocol template can be downloaded at or . Note that this template is not being accepted for University Hospitals IRB submissions. With questions, contact Kim Volarcik at 216.368.0134 or kav6@case.edu.