Current Projects

AEREO has a number of projects underway, as well as several in development. Make sure to check out our Publications and Completed Projects to see our work so far.

In Progress (as of Spring 2023)

1. An interview study to examine how IRBs engage with outside experts to inform their review and oversight of research (as part of a more comprehensive project on outside expertise, including a published literature review and survey study)
2. A pilot study to develop and examine the feasibility and utility of an "institutional memory bank" of IRB decisions on challenging protocols (a follow-up project to earlier work on IRB precedent)
3. A study of investigator perspectives on the value that IRBs add (or could add) to their research
4. A study of how institutional community research advisory boards liaise with IRBs and researchers as a potential mechanism to help incorporate participant perspectives (funded as an NCATS bioethics supplement)
5. An effort to determine what types of QA/QI AEREO members conduct to evaluate their HRPPs, feeding into a "data dictionary" to allow HRPPs to evaluate themselves in a consistent way across sites, leading to the ability to combine and compare data for broader analysis
6. A project to examine whether and how HRPPs gather participant experience data, barriers and facilitators to doing so, and the perceived value of that information to improving IRB and HRPP quality.
7. An effort to examine the centrality of deliberation to the role of IRBs and determine how to meaningfully assess and improve deliberative quality.
8. An empirical study to consider the role of IRBs in evaluating the social value of proposed research (submitted for funding as an NCATS bioethics supplement).

Do you have an idea for empirically evaluating IRB and HRPP effectiveness?

We want to hear it. Please contact AEREO Co-chairs Holly Fernandez Lynch and Holly A. Taylor to set up a meeting.