The institution does NOT charge fees to serve as the sIRB, whether for external sites or individuals. Since the institution, however, may not be the best sIRB option for your study, please be aware that commercial IRBs and some academic institutions do charge fees for IRB review. When planning your study – especially if it will involve a large number of sites and/or locations outside Wisconsin – you should consider whether you will need to use a commercial/independent IRB or an IRB at an academic institution that charges fees. The study team is solely responsible for paying any IRB fees, although NIH may pay direct costs for IRB review.

Study teams are encouraged to keep in mind that studies involving three or more sites will likely require additional staff support to manage coordination and communicating across sites as well as document management. This role is being called the “IRB Liaison” by many institutions and is typically a staff member who is part of the overall study/lead study team. This may be 0.1 – 1.0 FTE, depending upon the size and complexity of the study. See Appendix C for an example job description.

When working with a commercial/independent IRB as the lead site of a federally funded study, keep in mind that a protocol level submission (protocol review) may be made prior to having all sites and contracts in place. This review is limited to the overall protocol and does not approve sites. However, it is typically acceptable to federal funders as an IRB approval to be able to release additional funds to support further site submissions to the IRB of record.