In December, the ARROW Application Wizard, the menu for selecting an IRB application, was updated to reflect changes in application types along with a more user-friendly display. Currently, the first two application types listed in the wizard are the Protocol-Based Application (PBA) and the Non-Protocol-Based Application (nPBA), with the PBA being listed first. However, the IRB Office receives more nPBAs than PBAs, and therefore, after March 26th, the nPBA will be listed first, along with some additional language that indicates most education/social/behavioral research should use the nPBA (see screenshot below). The IRB Office hopes these updates may also help study teams avoid selecting the wrong application type.

ARROW Application Wizard shown with the following options listed: non-protocol-based application, protocol-based application, request to cede IRB review, and other IRB applications.