IACUCs at "Small" Non-Biomedical Institutions Barbara Gray 06 Jan 1997 16:33 EST
Best wishes to everyone for a happy and healthy New Year and for a significant increase in grant funding! I'm trying to do a cost comparison of implementing our own IACUC vs. entering into an agreement with the local medical school to form a joint IACUC. We are a comprehensive university of approximately 11,000 students and 525 roster faculty with an annual sponsored programs volume of about $4 million. We have three full-time sponsored programs staff (director, grants administrator, and information and technology coordinator plus a half-time work-study student--note that we do not have a departmental secretary nor do we have general secretarial services like typing and filing available elsewhere). I would estimate that we would have no more that 10 protocols per year from Biology and Psychology departments. I don't anticipate cats, dogs, or primates. We probably will have birds, fish, amphibians, and rodents. Some protocols will be for field studies. Since I don't have much experience with IACUCs, I don't know what amount of time Sponsored Programs staff would have to spend to provide full support to our own IACUC. By full support, I mean scheduling meetings, recording minutes, doing correspondence, record-keeping, reporting, scheduling facility inspections, attending facility inspections, drafting policies and procedures, drafting protocol application forms, scheduling animal care staff training, and other such administrative duties. If you are a relatively comparable institution, would you please estimate the average number of person-hours or person-days spent by Sponsored Programs staff each month on activities related to the animal care and use program and/or the IACUC? If possible, please indicate your annual sponsored programs volume, the number of sponsored programs staff, student enrollment, number of roster faculty, and the average number of protocols reviewed per month or per year. Please note if your support functions are significantly different from the ones noted above. Also, if possible, please estimate the average number of person-hours or person-days that you think your IACUC Chair and IACUC members spend on animal matters. Although I don't think information from large research institutions or biomedical institutions will be terribly helpful since we don't have the same economies of scale, if you are from one of these types of institutions, please feel free to give me any advice about pros and cons of doing a joint IACUC anyway. Right now, I'm leaning toward a "trial marriage," but I have a few professors who fear being "taken over" or having a bunch of clinicians review field research that they "don't understand." I haven't discovered any basis for these fears other than accounts from these professors' colleagues that sound more like fish stories than reality. The two institutions' sponsored programs offices have an excellent working relationship and some of our faculty collaborate with their faculty. As always, thanks for the input. Barbara H. Gray Telephone: 803-953-5673 Director of Sponsored Programs FAX: 803-953-6577 College of Charleston e-mail: xxxxxx@cofc.edu 66 George Street Charleston, South Carolina 29424