Heather Frankenberger, assistant director-eRa for Research and Sponsored Programs, gave a presentation on RazorGrant and the Institutional Review Board (IRB) process for the TFSC New and Not-So-New Faculty Lunch Series.
RazorGrant is the way that researchers at the University of Arkansas document and obtain approval for their grants and sponsored research with outside sponsors. The RazorGrant system allows the University to collect information on the amount of award dollars researchers bring in to the university and serves as a way to give credit to the researchers on campus. In addition to collecting information on amounts and sponsor submissions, this system allows department heads and deans to review the proposal information prior to submission and this system also has S2S (system-to-system) submission capabilities. Training sessions for RazorGrantare also available that make the process easier to navigate.
The RazorGrant IRB protocol submission service, previously a paper-based system, is now electronic! IRB approval is needed whenever human subjects are being used for gathering data for research. It is important to get approval well in advance of conducting the research–whether that is a survey, interview, or observations–otherwise the data collected will not be eligible for use in research. There are several resources for researchers such as help finding funding sources and getting prepared for the review process.
Need help with your IRB protocol? Contact Ro Windwalker at irb@uark.edu. For system issues or system training email hfranken@uark.edu.
This content was developed from a presentation by Heather Frankenberger which was sponsored by The Wally Cordes Teaching and Faculty Support Center (TFSC) at the University of Arkansas.
The presentation can be downloaded and viewed as a PDF: RazorGrant Overview – Proposals and IRB Protocols
Library Resources:
- “The Institutional Review Board” by Raffaella Hart and Michael Belotto in Seminars in Nuclear Medicine, 40(5), 2010. (Available online.)
- “Institutional Review Board: Ally Not Adversary ” by Melanie Domenech Rodriguez, Samantha Corralejo, Nicole Vouvalis, and Alan Mirly in Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research, 22(2), 2017. (Available online.)
- “Victor Frankenstein’s Institutional Review Board Proposal, 1790” by Gary Harrison and William L. Gannon in Science and Engineering Ethics, 21(5), 2015. (Available online.)