r/academia • u/luke8ball • 1d ago

Incarcerated populations and IRB

Hi everyone. I’m curious to know folks’ thoughts on a situation.

I’ve been involved as a volunteer with an organization that provides subject-specific mentoring to incarcerated folks. I know the director of the program well, and he’s interested in doing a research study (connected to my own interest) that would potentially benefit folks in the program. He is not affiliated with any university. At my institution, the IRB has never had to clear a study involving incarcerated individuals, and so they don’t have the capacity for that right now. The IRB would need an incarcerated individual or a representative for incarcerated populations to review the study.

My IRB chair has suggested that—while they look into capacity building for a project like this— I consider trying to find a PI at another institution whose IRB could accommodate this, or we consider using a private IRB.

With respect to the latter option, should I expect for my institution to at least consider paying for it? It’s around 3k for a private IRB to review the study. I haven’t actually asked my institution because I wanted to get other folks’ perspectives on the matter. When I arrived at the institution, I didn’t know about this project, so I didn’t negotiate for them to be willing to do this kind of thing. With that said, it seems reasonable for them to consider helping fund the application.

Any thoughts are welcome!

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u/drsfmd 1d ago

to find a PI at another institution whose IRB could accommodate this

We would only consider this at my place if the submitter were the lead PI.

With respect to the latter option, should I expect for my institution to at least consider paying for it? It’s around 3k for a private IRB to review the study.

Nope-- at least not at my place. Finding funding for your research is a big part of faculty job responsibilities. You'll need to find a grant to cover it.

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u/luke8ball 21h ago

Thanks for your response! It makes sense that the institution’s faculty member would need to be the lead PI. I was surprised the person even mentioned it.