About the IRB

Our Mission

The mission of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) Office is to ensure the protection of the safety, rights, and welfare of all human participants in research studies conducted by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (BSPH) faculty, staff, and students in the U.S. and in countries around the world.

The BSPH IRB is authorized to interpret the federal human subjects research regulations and determine which activities require BSPH IRB oversight. To fulfill the agreement underlying the assurances, and to satisfy institutional policy, all faculty, staff, and students at BSPH must submit for IRB review any human subjects research project, regardless of funding source (or lack thereof) and/or location at which the research will be conducted. For more information on the federal guidelines that determine the kind of research the BSPH IRB is required to approve, please visit  the Department of Health and Human Services website. 

The BSPH IRB serves as the IRB of record for the following departments:  

• JHU faculty and staff with primary appointments at BSPH 
• JHU faculty and staff from other JHU Divisions (SOM, Homewood), with the approval of the Vice Dean for Research for BSPH and the other JHU Divisions 
• Agora Institute PIs who are affiliated with BSPH or have approval to submit to the BSPH IRB because their topics are in our wheelhouse 
• Jhpiego staff who conduct human subjects research 
• CCP staff who conduct human subjects research 
• External institutions with whom BSPH enters into a Reliance Agreement accepting review and oversight responsibility  

Human Research Protection Program

The School’s human research protection program (HRPP) is registered with the U.S. Office of Human Research Protections (OHRP) as follows:

• IORG Number: 0000077
• Federal Wide Assurance (FWA): 00000287
• IRB X Registration #00000758
• IRB FC Registration #000000112

IRB Administration

Department & Ancillary Reviews for IRB Submission + Subaward Concordance Review 

Contact the Assistant Director for Institutional Coordination with questions to ensure smooth coordination of multiple review and compliance requirements. The Assistant Director for Institutional Coordination also serves as a liaison between JHURA and investigators to facilitate the review of concordance between stated roles of project partners and proposed sub-awards.