Mission of the Institutional Review Board: to protect the rights, welfare and safety of human subjects participating in research conducted by the NIH Intramural Research Program; and to promote the ethical conduct of human subjects research by collaborating with investigators throughout the research lifecycle.

The Institutional Review Board (IRB) regulates all research activities involving human subjects conducted in the NIH Intramural Research Program (unless the research is exempt from IRB review). The IRB is a committee appointed in accordance with the regulatory mandates to protect subjects’ rights and safeguard their welfare; ensure compliance with all applicable laws/regulations; and conduct ethical reviews of human research activities.

As part of the NIH’s IRB centralization and consolidation initiative, the Office of IRB Operations (IRBO) was implemented in November 2018 and will manage the six panels that are replacing the 12 institute-based IRBs.