The primary purpose of the IRB is to promote ethical human research and to ensure that research participants are treated justly. In accordance with these goals, Eastern’s IRB assesses research projects to ensure they are operating for the common good by minimizing harm and maximizing benefits, by being respectful of individuals’ rights, and fairly distributing benefits and costs to stakeholders.

Review by the IRB serves as a “check” to guard against research that might cause unintentional harm to the people involved or violate their rights in an unanticipated way. A secondary function of the IRB is to meet a mandate required in order to obtain most federally funded grants. Eastern University complies with the “Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects”, which requires Eastern to establish an “Institutional Review Board".  The IRB at Eastern meets federal requirements for all research involving human subjects and involving federal funding, except for research involving FDA-regulated investigational drugs.

We review all research originating at Eastern University or involving Eastern University students, faculty, staf, etc. that involves the:

1. observation of or interaction with human subjects, and which
2. results in data or generalizable knowledge that will or potentially might in the future be
3. disseminated for public use, must be reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board for the protection of human subjects.

Consult the IRB Manual to ascertain if your project needs to be reviewed by the IRB. Then download and complete the IRB application form.  Completed forms must be submitted electronically. See below for relevant instructions.

Eastern University IRB approval process has gone green! That means all applications and approvals will be done electronically, using Brightspace.

Follow the steps below:

• Begin by emailing the IRB at irb@eastern.edu to indicate your intention to apply for approval. This must be done from your Eastern email address and should include the name and email address of your faculty (e.g. course faculty, thesis advisor, dissertation chair) for student applicants or department head for faculty applicants. 
• Read through the information and resources provided on the IRB Brightspace page.  You will upload/submit application materials into this IRB Brightspace page to initiate an IRB review.  If you have trouble with self-enrollment, please email us at irb@eastern.edu.
• Read through the IRB manual.  All research projects involving human subjects carried out by EU faculty and students must seek IRB approval - it is the IRB that determines whether your project requires exempt, expedited or full board review.
• Download the IRB application form from the "downloadable forms" section of this website. Fill out the form completely. If you will be seeking written consent from study participants, write out your consent letter, using the samples provided as a guide. If you will be seeking verbal consent, write out a consent script with the exact language you will use.
• You will receive an email from the IRB with detailed steps for completing and submitting an IRB Application for review.  A review cannot begin until you have completed all three of the following steps: 1. completed your ethics training requirement, 2. submitted your IRB Application Form with all supporting documents, and 3. you have requested that your advisor/chair/dean complete the electronic advisor approval form (provided by the IRB in the email) to obtain their approval for your project.
• Once the IRB committee has reviewed your application, you will receive a message from the chair indicating whether the project is approved in its present form, requires minor changes, or requires major changes before it can be approved. Make any required changes and resubmit your documents into Brightspace.
• When your application is approved, you will receive an email notifying you of the same. If you need a letter of approval to show to a research site (e.g., school, hospital, organization), let the IRB chair know and you will be sent a portable document file (pdf) on letterhead that you can print.