Ethics & Education

In today's fast paced and highly competitive research environment, it is critical that educational opportunities be provided to Indiana University's research community in the areas of research ethics and research compliance. The Office of Research Administration has created REEP (Research Ethics, Education, and Policy) to help coordinate, communicate, and deliver learning opportunities that promote ethically sound research of the highest caliber and helps to ensure compliance with local, state, and federal guidelines.

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REEP Office

REEP is currently in the process of being formed and targeted to be up and running by the summer of 2009. In the coming months, this web page will be populated with information on upcoming educational opportunities and information on how to register.

In the fall of 2007, OVPRA organized a task force of faculty from IUPUI, IUB, and the regional campuses to provide recommendations on the proposed function of this office. Those recommendations provided the framework for the following functions to be identified for REEP:

Research Ethics Education

Provide educational opportunities in the area of research ethics
Topics would include issues such as stewardship of data, collaborative research strategies, mentoring, authorship practices, and intellectual property
Collaborate with the existing university centers with expertise in research ethics such as the Poynter Center and the IU Center for Bioethics
Provide research community with educational opportunities provided by leading experts from around the country

Research Compliance Education

Organize a comprehensive program of educational offering covering research compliance obligations in the areas of regulatory compliance (human subjects, conflicts of interest, animal research, etc.) and grants administration compliance
The delivery of educational modules will include a combination of both face-to-face presentations and the development of web-based modules
Subject matter experts in other units of OVPRA will develop content and in many cases, deliver the education
REEP will provide maintain a list of course offerings, market educational opportunities, and provide software to track educational accomplishments
Coordinate university research compliance committee education to help ensure that committee members understand the scope of their responsibilities and how to carry them out. This will also help improve consistency among committees that handle similar compliance matters (e.g. IRB's)

Research Policy Coordination & Dissemination

Coordinate the creation and on-going maintenance of the complete body of university policies covering research compliance and grants administration obligations
OVPRA functional areas will continue to author and provide content for policies while this office will facilitate the development of good policies ensuring policies are consistently formatted and are well written and will help coordinate the appropriate vetting, approval, and dissemination of such policies
Ensure that all research policies at Indiana University are current, coherent, and readily available online