NEWS

July 1 Start for Electronic IRB Submissions
Effective July 1 2006 ALL submissions to the IRB from Baystate Health must be submitted using the IRB WebKit. This requirement is the final stage of a 4 month implementation process of a web-based portal whose goal is to provide greater support to research at Baystate.

To gain access to submit and maintain your IRB protocols electronically:

• First complete the online IRB Web-Kit training.
  Or access this training by going to:
  e-Workplace > Applications & Links: Application Instructions/Manuals: IRB > IRB WebKit - Web Based Training



• Open an IRB Web-Kit account.
  Submit a System Access Request Form (SARF) to Maureen.Noftall@bhs.org in the IRB Office.  The SARF is online on e-Workplace – Help Desk.

You will be e-mailed by the IRB Office as soon as your account is activated, and provided with a link to the IRB WebKit. For more information, call the IRB Office at 4-4356.

Change in Process to Apply for Federal Grants
The Federal Government, including NIH, is moving toward the electronic submission of all grant proposals, and eventually contracts, via the online gateway at GRANTS.gov (http://grants.gov/).

Please read the NIH announcement at this link http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-06-035.html

Current estimates are that this will add a significant amount of time to the NIH grant application process and it could take a week for an application to reach NIH after it is submitted online through the GRANTS.gov portal.

If you anticipate applying for an NIH grant, you will need to:

• Contact Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA) to have them register you at the NIH eRA Commons on the GRANTS.gov site. E-mail James.Johnson@bhs.org to request a registration form.



• Contact Information Services to get the required software:
  
  1. Pure Edge is available free from NIH eRA Commons. Contact the I.S. Help Desk. to initiate the process to download it.
  2. Adobe Acrobat 7.0 (not Reader) will also be necessary to create PDF's to upload to Pure Edge. You can order it from I.S. on the Help Desk page of e-Workplace.