My friend is doing some research for a case (not doing lab research…) and wants me to throw this question out to all y’all:
Does the sponsor of a study have to pay the IRB?
I assume the IRB gets paid … if the sponsor doesn’t pay, who does?
In the situation I’m familiar with, the IRB is a university department. They are paid by the university to make sure research done by the university’s employees and students complies with federal laws and university policy. Faculty and students don’t pay the IRB to review their studies.
It sounds like you are talking about a company sponsoring research in partnership with a university, hospital, or other traditional researching institution. Is that right? My guess is that the sponsorship cost would have some type of overhead built in that would cover the IRB and other university administration costs associated with the research.
Institutions can set their own policies, though, so you will probably need to know which IRB you are talking about to get a definite answer.
In the hospital where I worked (a teaching hospital), the members of the IRB were paid for attending their monthly board meetings, but these payments came from hospital funds and not, IIRC, from the applicants. In fact there was some trouble taken to assure that nobody presenting an application to the IRB had any way of bribing the members, which is what it could’ve looked like if applicants had paid.
Thanks you two. I will try to get more specifics. This is good information because it sounds like my friend didn’t realize that every place has its own policy.