Brown Innovation and Research Collaborative for Health
HRPP Announcements
Your source for the latest news and developments from the forthcoming BIRCH HRPP.
HRPP Announcements
Your source for the latest news and developments from the forthcoming BIRCH HRPP.
Brown Human Research Protection Program (HRPP)
What is an HRPP?
An HRPP is a collaborative effort between all those involved in human research. It includes institutional leaders, the institutional review board (IRB), researchers, faculty, staff, students and the community. The HRPP aims to protect the rights and welfare of research volunteers, by reviewing and providing support, guidance, and education to facilitate research activities involving human participants, their data or specimens, that is ethical and scientifically sound.
What is the difference between an HRPP and an IRB?
The institutional review board (IRB) is an institutional group or committee charged with providing ethical and regulatory oversight of research involving human subjects. The IRB is part of an HRPP.
What is the HRPP/IRB unification or alignment?
Currently, there are several HRPPs across Brown University Health (formerly Lifespan), Care New England (CNE), and Brown University. The BIRCH initiative aims to expand the size, capacity, and expertise of Brown University's HRPP to streamline the administrative functions, reduce redundancy, and alleviate administrative burdens. The ultimate goal is to create an expanded HRPP under Brown University that will support all human subjects research across Brown Health, CNE, and Brown University.
Timeline
Dec. 2024-Feb. 2025
- Hiring Personnel
- Systems Work
Feb. 2025-June 2025
- Training
- Systems & Resource Prep
- Data Migration
June 2025
- New HRPP in Operation
HRPP Updates
- Hiring status
All additional HRPP positions for the expanded HRPP under Brown have been posted and interviews are in progress. For more information about the positions, please visit Brown’s Career Site:
- Systems work
Brown University currently uses the Huron Research Suite - IRB module as an electronic submission system. The system has to be modified to be able to support research at Brown Health and Care New England.
- Huron systems work started in November 2024.
- Training & Resources
Training is an integral piece of a successful implementation of the expanded HRPP. Many resources are being utilized, including Brown’s Division of Research Training and Education Office. A needs assessment has been conducted and development of a training plan is underway.
- Brown HRPP aims to make a number of training and resources available prior to launching the expanded HRPP. Resources will include a combination of live training, short videos, and user-guides for multiple audiences, including IRB members and the research community. Training topics will include but are not limited to the following:
- Huron IRB System
- Huron Toolkit
- How to User Guides (How to submit a new application, a revision, a continuing review etc)
- Data Migration
Brown Health and Care New England currently do not use the Huron IRB system. As part of this effort, the data from Brown Health and CNE IRB electronic submission systems needs to be exported and imported in Huron prior to go-live. This is called data migration. Additional details about data migration will be shared in the coming months.
- Communication
This website kicks off the official HRPP implementation communication plan. It is critically important to define how information will be shared with key stakeholders throughout this project. The following platforms and methods will be used, but not limited to:
- Website updates
- Newsletters
- Town halls/listening tours
- Steering committees
- Feedback and evaluation (surveys)
Frequently Asked Questions
The Brown Innovation and Research Collaborative for Health (BIRCH) brings together the research conducted by Brown University’s Division of Biology and Medicine, Brown University Health, and Care New England under one administrative umbrella.
The overarching goal for BIRCH is to align the organizations’ biomedical and health sciences research activities to support research growth and innovation. BIRCH aims to improve the researcher experience, attract patients, recruit and retain diverse, top-class faculty and staff, streamline administrative support, and address barriers to growth.
Aligning the existing IRBs and HRPPs under one, expanded Brown University HRPP is one of BIRCH’s goals.
The expanded HRPP will be at Brown University. Brown Health and Care New England will rely on Brown University’s HRPP for regulatory and ethical oversight of their human subjects research studies.
After HRPP unification, collaborative research involving CNE and/or Brown University Health can be submitted as one application in Huron. It will no longer be necessary to also submit applications separately to CNE, Brown University Health, or Brown University.
It is anticipated that the expanded HRPP will go live in June 2025. Researchers at Brown University Health and CNE will receive updates and notifications as to the exact start date. Brown University Health and CNE will continue to operate their own HRPPs until the enhanced Brown HRPP office is ready to accept new protocol submissions.
The expanded HRPP will use the Huron IRB system for submissions. Training and resources will be made available to all prior to launch.
Training on the Huron system will be offered prior to the start of the expanded HRPP operations. Training will also be available after launch as will several training and other resources to help the research community with protocol preparation and submission.
Active study records will, in part, be migrated into Huron as part of the implementation plan. Details related to data migration will be communicated nearer the time of launch.
CITI training is integrated into Huron so that completion reports do not need to be submitted and updated. In order to do this, all users will need to affiliate their CITI account with Brown University. The Brown CITI curriculum will likely change to support the diverse research portfolio of the expanded HRPP. Previously completed courses will carry over, however new requirements will need to be completed.
While the exact number of IRBs has not yet been determined, the expanded HRPP will likely have weekly IRB meetings.
In an effort to streamline all inquiries, we have created a Brown HRPP Expansion survey If you have any questions, please submit the question form below.
Ask Questions/Provide Feedback
Have a question? Please submit questions or feedback to leadership about the expanded Brown HRPP. Common questions and answers will be added to the FAQ above as appropriate. Submit a new query form every time a new question arises. There is no limit.
If you have questions regarding the BIRCH initiative, please send us an email.