The Institutional Review Board (IRB), the formally designated UMBC committee to approve, monitor, and review research involving humans is currently accepting applications from students to join.  Graduate and undergraduate students are considered full members of the board. Student members serve for a one (1) appointment and review research protocols, attend meetings, and vote on issues with the aim to protect the rights and welfare of the research subjects. Appointments begin in October 2019. The board typically meets 5 times during the academic year: October, December, February, April and June. Meetings are on Mondays from 10 am-12 pm.

This is a terrific opportunity to learn about ethical issues related to research. Also, being a member of the IRB looks good on a curriculum vitae or resume. Please contact Dr. Susan Sonnenschein, IRB Chair, (sonnensc@umbc.edu) no later than September 20, 2019 if you wish to apply. Your email should include a copy of your curriculum vitae or resume and a few sentences describing your research interests and experience. We are particularly interested in people who have had research experience with human participants.

The Office of Research Protections and Compliance (ORPC) offers training and guidance throughout the protocol review process. Please contact the ORPC at compliance@umbc.edu or click on the IRB's web page for additional information.

The Center for Social Science Scholarship hosts “Tea & Theory,” a monthly seminar-style workshop where we discuss social science theory. All faculty and advanced graduate students are welcome!

The purpose of the workshop is to promote intellectual exchange among the social science community at UMBC. This interdisciplinary workshop is designed to encourage reading across disciplines as well as provide an opportunity to practice debate & critique skills.

Fall workshops are dedicated to reading and discussing the “Classics” of social science theory, while Spring workshops focus on “New Takes on Classics” (works generally published in the last 5 years).

Workshops will be held on the first Wednesday of the month in PUP 451 from 2-3:30pm, unless otherwise noted. No need to sign up, just show up! Tea will be provided but please BYOM (Bring Your Own Mug).

Fall 2019

*Participants are responsible for acquiring their own copies of the readings. Please read the following works by the time we meet:

September 11th: Durkheim, Suicide: A Study in Sociology

October 2nd: Weber, Economy & Society 

November 6th: Foucault, Discipline & Punish 

December 4th: Becker, The Economic Approach to Human Behavior 

To submit a reading suggestion or any other question/concern, please email welborn@umbc.edu.

We are pleased to announce the successful go live kickoff of KUALI Protocols for UMBC, our cloud-based electronic research administration tool. After several positive and successful tests UMBC’s KUALI for protocol submissions has an official start date of August 15^th 2019.

What this means for you: online forms will now be a thing of the past and we will only accept IACUC protocol submissions through KUALI. From now on KUALI will be your one stop shop for sponsored Program’s and now Compliance.

For our current IACUC protocol users you will need to upload your current protocol into KUALI before any yearly reviews can be approved so please upload them ASAP.

Our Website will also be changing. We will no longer offer forms for Protocol submission but will instead provide you the link to access your KUALI protocol. Also, on our website we will provide you with links to training documents in case you have any questions. If you need additional training our office will be happy to meet with you one on one to discuss your questions in person or feel free to send us an email.

We also hope to launch KUALI for IRB soon so stay tuned for more information

Stay tuned for more information but for now remember to save the date 8/15/19.

The Justification section of the retro request form is very important in explaining the need for the payroll correction and must follow all compliance rules affecting sponsored funds. An explanation merely stating that the transfer was made “to correct an error” or “to transfer to correct project” is not sufficient.

Retros must contain the following information in the Justification section:

• A detailed description of why the cost transfer is needed and how the error occurred. Why does this retro need to be processed?
• A correlation of the charge to the project to which the transfer is being made. Why should this project pay for this expense; how does this charge relate to the scope of the project?
• If over 90 days, also include an explanation as to why the error was not discovered and corrected within the required 90 day timeframe. What is being done to help prevent this from happening again?
• If the retro request affects more than one sponsored chartstring, include an acknowledgement that ALL PIs or Department Administrators have approved the payroll cost transfer.

You can access the full updated Cost Transfer Procedures either through the What's New section of our Homepage or go directly to the Management --> Cost Transfer section.

For those who like shortcuts, simply click the links below!

Cost Transfer Procedures on Sponsored Projects

Payroll Cost Transfer (Retro) Checklist