In Brief
In just seven months, the University of Oregon (UO) successfully replaced its legacy institutional review board (IRB) and human research protection program (HRPP) systems with Huron IRB and HRPP toolkit. UO’s new suite of tools, coined by UO as the Research Administration Portal (RAP), is part of a transformative effort that the UO office of the vice president for research and innovation (OVPRI) is embarking on, with the goal of improving research administration services and efficiency for faculty, staff and students who interact with the research offices.
While OVPRI’s homegrown technology and manual solutions allowed UO to tailor tools to its research administration landscape, its processes made it challenging to support the integrated nature of research operations. UO collaborated with Huron to adopt an integrated system that meets industry standards and best practices. By implementing Huron’s research administration software, UO offers investigators a single solution for nearly all things related to research compliance and administration. Huron IRB and HRPP toolkit mirror UO’s legacy systems, but allow for automated workflows rather than manual processes, reducing administrative burden and helping researchers improve their research capacity.
The successful Huron IRB and HRPP toolkit implementation has allowed UO to hasten turnaround times when issuing approvals and creating approval packets, reducing the time spent by staff and investigators on review activities. UO staff members report a significant reduction in the time spent processing materials and generating approval paperwork. Furthermore, the HRPP toolkit has established the full documentation of the procedures and materials used to facilitate IRB review and committee management. The structure of the HRPP toolkit provides documentation that complements the new system and ensures all compliance obligations from program policies and procedures are met.
The University of Oregon and Huron continue to collaborate, with planned implementations of Huron institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC), conflict of interest (COI), grants and effort certification in the near term.
Learn more about Huron’s comprehensive suite of research software products.