The Institutional Review Board (IRB) is a committee established to protect the rights and welfare of the children and families who participate in research activities conducted under the auspices of Seattle Children’s and affiliated research organizations. The IRB reports to the senior vice president and chief research operations officer of Seattle Children’s Research Institute. The IRB is responsible for ensuring that basic ethical principles as well as federal regulations, state laws and institutional policies governing the protection of research participants are applied to research activities.
Seattle Children’s holds a Federalwide Assurance, FWA00002443, and has two IRB registration numbers, IRB00000277 and IRB00009311. See our institutional authority page.
Office Hours
The IRB hosts weekly virtual office hours Tuesdays at 11 a.m. and Thursdays at 3 p.m. to provide quick, accessible support to Seattle Children’s researchers who have specific questions about IRB submissions, documents that are being prepared, processes or requirements. Please note that office hours are for Seattle Children's investigators and study team members only.
A RedCap form is available for study teams to submit specific questions. This form will start accepting submissions just before the start of each office hours session. Once a question is submitted in the form, attendees will be redirected into the Teams meeting. Questions will be answered in the order of submission and conversations will be limited to 15 minutes to accommodate multiple attendees.
For more comprehensive questions, request a consult. If you are unsure whether your question needs a full consultation, feel free to attend office hours to discuss with an IRB analyst.
Membership
IRB members are appointed by the senior vice president and chief research operations officer of the research institute. A broad representation of pediatric specialties is found among the scientific members. In addition to the scientific members, the IRB includes non-scientists and unaffiliated members as required by federal regulations.