Institutional Review Board (Cayuse Era)

Institutional Review Board (IRB):

The IRB at MTSU is an appointed committee that oversees any research projects involving human participants. The aim of the IRB is to protect the rights and welfare of research participants. No research study that involves collection of data through interaction or intervention with living individuals may begin at MTSU without IRB approval.

IRB Training:

The IRB Training page will link researchers to a site where they can undergo training to obtain certification for conducting research involving human participants.

IRB Forms:

The IRB Forms page allows access to download the most current forms (including consent and recruitment forms).

Instructions to Submit:

  • Complete all necessary CITI IRB training before submitting your application
  • Prepare all consent, recruitment, materials, and other forms that will be submitted with your application
  • Note that incomplete applications will be returned to be completed prior to review
  • Review takes place in stages as noted on the Cayuse portal; researchers can be asked to add additional information at any stage and all requested information must be supplied before final approval can be granted
  • Review the Cayuse Quick Start Guide to prepare to submit
  • Applications are submitted via the Cayuse IRB portal
  • To request for a new user to be added to Cayuse, fill out the Cayuse New User Request Form (Dynamic Form).

Check Here for Important Cayuse Notes

  • The Cayuse IRB portal will automatically access your CITI training and pull it into the system. Your email address in CITI needs to match the email address in Cayuse for this to work. Check your profile in Cayuse to find out what email address has been uploaded. Update your email address in CITI to match by following the instructions on the CITI email update page.
  • Students, new employees, and folks from outside of MTSU will need to be added to the Cayuse people finder before they can be added to your protocol in Cayuse. Student PIs will need to be added before beginning a submission. To request for a new user to be added to Cayuse, fill out the Cayuse New User Request Form (Dynamic Form).

Compliance Breach or Adverse Event Reporting:

If you need to report a study-related injury, or if you have concerns about a research project, please contact the Office of Research Compliance by emailing compliance@mtsu.edu or calling 615-898-5010. 

Federal Wide Assurance (FWA):

The FWA is a contract or agreement that establishes standards for human participants research as approved by the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP). It is the policy of the Middle Tennessee State University IRB to uphold its Assurance as filed with the OHRP.

  • FWA number - 00005331 
  • IRB Registration number - IRB00003571 
  • IORG number - 0002962
  • OBM number - 0990-0279
  • ORI* number - 1274605

*ORI - Office of Research Integrity (not part of OHRP) oversees misconduct in research but not human subjects protocols.

NOTE: If a page does not say "Cayuse Era" at the top, you have landed on an outdated IRB page. DO NOT rely on any information presented on an outdated page. Delete the link that took you to that page or notify the owner of the page with the link. Update your bookmarks or links to the new pages.

Email your questions to:
irb_information@mtsu.edu