OPRS update for 10/16/25
Details
A message from Patty Jones, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation – Compliance:
Dear Human Subjects Research Community,
I am pleased to work with OPRS on our processes for the next six months or so, while we search for the next OPRS Director. As always, we continue to do our best to process IRB protocols and provide support to the research community. We are very short-staffed right now; please be patient with us as we navigate through these times together!
I am most grateful to Jennifer Ford for serving as Interim OPRS Director while we conduct a national search for our next OPRS Director.
Below, we have updated the original guidance that was published on October 1, 2025. You will see that we have simplified our approach to submissions and have clarified that we are open to being the reviewing IRB for multi-site projects on a case-by-case basis. We have also abandoned the idea of requiring second-level review for student projects; instead, I will be formulating a new approach and look forward to working with members of this community on that.
I wanted to share three other updates related to human subjects research at Illinois:
- The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is now part of ResearchMatch, a national clearinghouse of studies seeking research participants and research participants who want to be part of studies. Currently, we are piloting this now with the Colleges of LAS and AHS; Erika Cornelius Smith (LAS) and Wendy Bartlo (AHS) are our two campus points of contact to ResearchMatch. If you are a member of those Colleges and want to check this out, please contact one of them!
- I am the point of contact to set up the University’s relationship with the vendor Advarra as a provider of commercial IRB services. This means that the University must have a contract with Advarra; that every study that uses Advarra must have a reliance agreement with OPRS; and that the principal investigator is responsible for paying Advarra’s fees. More details to come!
- The University of Illinois System has a new contract with the vendor Rellevate to provide a new method for compensating research participants with reloadable debit cards. The System Office has offered several training sessions to business managers and others. I myself attended a training session and am happy to share my informal notes for whoever is interested. Please note that this method is optional; and in fact, you may not want to use it for certain types of studies, because Rellevate will require the name, date of birth, and address of participants in order to pay them, and they will keep that identifiable information for five years. This is because debit cards fall under banking regulations that require such information. If that does not meet the needs of your study, feel free to ignore this option!
I am always happy to hear from you about research matters. Please feel free to contact me by email at pmjones5@illinois.edu.
Thank you!
Patty Jones
Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation - Compliance
Overview of Submission Prioritization
All submissions are placed into a queue. The queue is generally first-come, first-served, with some priority considerations. First, any reports relating to the safety, welfare, or rights of participants will be handled immediately. Second, to keep existing projects going, we will prioritize submissions such as research team updates to existing projects, renewals of existing projects, and required changes to existing projects.
Otherwise, New Study Applications, Not Human Subject Research determinations, and all other submissions will generally be treated on a first-come, first-served basis.
A note on student projects: Students, please do not list yourselves as the faculty Principal Investigator. Instead, please ask your PI to start a New Study Application and add you as a “Research Team Contact” so that you can edit the application. Then you can work on the application until final review and submission by the PI. See more guidance here.
IRB Reliance
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign IRB will temporarily limit its ability to serve as the reviewing IRB for multi-site studies. We prefer to have sub-awards be the reviewing IRB if possible. If you would like to use an external IRB, please submit a reliance consultation form and we’ll figure out how to proceed.
Please note that to utilize a commercial IRB such as Advarra, the standard reliance process is still required.
Assistance for Researchers
The OPRS website has a vast amount of information available in easy-to-use formats to answer most questions. In addition to the site’s search function, the following links are particularly beneficial:
- Research Topics
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Researcher Guidance
- Templates
- UIUC Relying on an External IRB
- IRBOnline Training
- Other Trainings (includes Webinar on New Study Application questions)
Researchers and students are encouraged to utilize faculty mentors and departmental resources prior to contacting OPRS.
OPRS staff reviewers will respond to emails and voicemails as best they can. Emails and voicemails received will be placed in a departmental queue as they are received and staff reviewers will begin working their way through the queue in order during the assigned hours.
Please remember that you can obtain information about the status of your submission by viewing the Project Dashboard within IRBOnline. You don’t need to email us to ask about this!