HRPP Manual Section 11-2
Outreach and Engagement
The Michigan State University (MSU) Human Research Protection Program (HRPP) is committed to educating the research community about their rights as research subjects and the Institutional Review Board (IRB) process by providing information and evaluating the community outreach efforts.
The HRPP, in conjunction with the Office of Regulatory Affairs as appropriate, is responsible for enhancing the outreach efforts targeted towards research subjects and the community about the IRB process. The HRPP assures that researchers employ a procedure that provides a venue for subjects to ask questions and voice concerns or complaints.
Research subjects are also encouraged to contact the IRB or the director of the HRPP if they want to obtain information, offer input, or voice complaints or problems. See HRPP Manual 5-6 “Contact Information” for multiple contact mechanisms available to research subjects. One mechanism for providing information to research subjects is the HRPP website (http://hrpp.msu.edu/). The HRPP website provides information to the research community and subjects about human subject research, the rights of research subjects, the IRB process, and whom to contact with questions, concerns, or complaints.
The IRB provides other educational opportunities to the university community about human subject research activities and the IRB process. See HRPP Manual 11, “Education and Outreach,” for descriptions of other educational opportunities. For example, past IRB conferences have been open to the public and patient advocates or research subjects can register to attend.
The MSU IRB works closely with the Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) to foster collaboration and outreach efforts with the goal to promote continual improvement of community outreach and engagement activities, focusing on clinical research. In addition, the CTSI website (http://ctsi.msu.edu/) provides additional information for subjects about clinical trials, including but not limited to, information about clinical research and clinical trials.
In addition, the Office for Research and Innovation (ORI) provides information on their website to educate the community about MSU’s research activities. The ORI website (https://research.msu.edu/) includes information about, but is not limited to, research spotlights and research news.
The Michigan State University Outreach and Engagement (UOE) website (https://engage.msu.edu/) provides education including, but not limited to, The Engaged Scholar Magazine, e-newsletter, and speaker series
See HRPP Manual Section 3-3, “Evaluation and Quality Improvement,” for a description of periodic evaluation of outreach activities.
This policy and procedure supersedes those previously drafted.
Approved By: Vice President of Research & Graduate Studies, 8-23-2011. Revision 1 approved by Assistant VP Regulatory Affairs on 11-23-2015. Revision 2 approved by Assistant VP Regulatory Affairs on 11-27-2021.