Celebrating the First Anniversary of VIRBS!
This past Friday, August 7, VIRBS, VCU’s IRB system, turned one! We transitioned to VIRBS from RAMS on this date last year. The HRPP staff celebrated on Thursday! Between August 7, 2025, and August 6, 2026, HRPP staff and the VCU IRB have… Our volume is increasing: July 2026 was our busiest month of the […]
VCU HRPP in the News & New Tip Sheets for Investigators
Jill Opalesky, Director of the VCU HRPP, was recently interviewed for a Clinician.com article on gaps in expertise on Institutional Review Boards (IRBs). In the article, Jill discussed why these gaps can be challenging to fill, as well as the proactive steps the VCU HRPP is taking to find experts in needed areas. The HRPP […]
Research Ethics Highlight: Justice and Fair Subject Selection in Drug Development Trials
Today’s Research Ethics Highlight blog highlights a recent publication co-authored by HRPP’s new Quality Control Analyst, Brittany Acors, and her colleague at Johns Hopkins, Emily Peugh. The study explored how often BMI or weight metrics were included in the eligibility criteria for drug development clinical trials.1 The ethical analysis considered what effect those eligibility restrictions […]
Summer Student Researchers – Update
It’s officially that time of year again—the summer brings a shift in focus to research experiences for many students at VCU. Whether they’re working in labs, conducting surveys and interviews, or analyzing data from health records, students benefit from these hands-on learning experiences. Professors and PIs who are bringing students in on a research project […]
HRPP – New Team Members
Please join us in welcoming our three new team members to the HRPP! We feel very fortunate to have recruited such wonderful talent and are delighted to have them join our VCU community. They all started together on May 4th — a great day for our program. Our two new IRB Generalists will be trained […]
HRPP UPDATE: Research Participant Payments and Tax Reporting Requirement
(Effective January 1, 2026) The IRS reporting threshold for research participant payments has increased from $600 to $2,000 per calendar year effective January 1, 2026. Payments to VCU research participants totaling $2,000 or more will be reported via Form 1099 (Miscellaneous Income), and all research payments remain taxable income. At VCU, studies that include total […]
HRPP/IRB Guidance for January 2025 Winter Storm/Water Outage
Human research community, VCU continues to monitor the water outage impacting our region as well as the predicted second winter storm. While the new VCU HRPP toolkit includes templates and resources supporting more nimble approaches, some IRB-approved protocols may be impacted. Please refer to the following resources for guidance in determining what must be reported […]
HRPP Toolkit Go-Live
The VCU Human Research Protection Program (HRPP) is pleased to announce that as the next milestone of the HRPP Transformation Project, the HRPP Toolkit will go live on the VCU HRPP website on July 14, 2023. The HRPP toolkit is a comprehensive set of workflows, standard operating procedures, checklists, worksheets, and templates. It is implemented […]
RAMS-IRB Updates with Protocol Launch
Protocol templates are required for use effective June 1, 2023. New IRB submissions that do not contain aprotocol will be returned to the researcher after this date. RAMS-IRB updates to reduce duplication between the submission smartform and protocol will be live June 1, 2023. The system will be more comprehensively updated later this fall – […]