The 2021 virtual Social, Behavioral, and Educational Research Conference (SBER21) and Advancing Ethical Research Conference (AER21) are hosted by Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIM&R) which “works to ensure the highest ethical standards in research by providing education and other professional resources to the research and research oversight community.” These sequential conferences provide valuable networking opportunities for research institutions and regulatory administrators. 

This year, Dr. Ada Diaconu-Muresan, Ph.D., and Dr. Myra Luna Lucero, Ed.D., hosted a panel presentation where they each presented their experiences in a presentation titled, “During the Best of Times and the Worst of Times: Communication Between IRBs and Researchers." Dr. Luna Lucero’s portion of the presentation captured TC IRB and researcher experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. The slides for the presentation are available for download (AER21 Slides). 

Kailee Kodama Muscente, Ed.M., Myra Luna Lucero, Ed.D., and Chloe O’Neill, B.A., presented a poster session titled, “Gauging the Temperature of Research: Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Research Submissions to a Private University's Institutional Review Board.” The Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics will also feature the abstract for this poster session. The empirical poster outlines how in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Teachers College Institutional Review Board (TC IRB) sought to determine how in-person research was impacted over the course of March 2020 to April 2021 through analysis of modification submissions. It also describes TC IRB’s self-evaluation to gauge the needs and concerns of faculty researchers which laid the foundation for future in-person research policies. Ms. Kodama Muscente and Dr. Luna Lucero also presented a second poster, “Time-Initiative-Effort (TIE): A Time Tracking Program to Justify the Need for Personnel Support.” The programmatic poster described how TC IRB developed and implemented an employee tracking program to demonstrate personnel and staffing needs. Presentation attendees had access to sample reports and templates. All of the posters and deliverables mentioned in this article are available upon request. 

TC researchers lead in numerous fields of study, and TC IRB endeavors to promote participant protections across all human subjects research. TC IRB continually engages with researchers, conferences, and programs to promote ethical research and participant well-being.