The information included in this message is a follow-up message regarding the IRB bulletin sent on 8/5/19.
Beginning August 12th, the UCSF IRB will no longer manage affiliate access requests and extensions for non-UCSF research personnel who work on UCSF-faculty-supervised research. Moving forward, affiliate access will be managed by the PI’s department.
This change will be implemented in two phases:
1. Changes to the process for new requests will take effect Monday August 12th. PIs who oversee research personnel at UCSF-affiliated organizations should request standard affiliate access through their own department’s HR Service Center Team. Affiliates will need to be renewed annually or discontinued through the department, as appropriate. For more information, see the IRB Bulletin dated August 5th, 2019.
2. Transition of existing affiliates to their PI’s department will occur over the next few months. A link to a Qualtrics Affiliate Access Status Survey will be sent to PIs and affiliate personnel in September. This survey will collect information such as PI name and department, affiliated site, employment or engagement type, and other information that are needed to identify current status, and what affiliate appointment type is appropriate.
IMPORTANT: Access for existing affiliates WILL NOT BE TERMINATED OR EXPIRE during the transition process. Even for ‘IMED’ affiliates who have an End Date of 9/30/19, the IRB will ensure that End Dates are extended during the verification process.
Why This Change Is Needed
Affiliate access for all types of affiliates was handled through the departments until the iRIS system went live in 2010. At that time, responsibility for setting up affiliate access for IRB research study personnel was transferred to the UCSF IRB. This change was necessary to ensure affiliates had the additional credentials required to use the iRIS system. However, no additional credentials or special title code have been required since 2013.
Departments currently manage access for various other types of affiliates. Campus-wide, new policies and procedures for affiliate appointments were implemented in 2014. The policies and procedures did not include changes to the affiliate access criteria or process for iRIS account access requests submitted through the IRB.
It was recently noted that IRB-initiated affiliate access requests occur outside the departmental and HR processes for affiliate appointments. The defined processes help to ensure eligibility criteria have been met, required training is assigned and completed, and access is terminated when separation occurs.
Returning management of research study personnel to the departments will ensure that appointees are associated with the right Affiliate Code (AFFEMP, VOL, CNTRCT, UCSTVS, etc.), satisfy institutional training requirements (HIPAA and others), and are authorized to accrue monthly network access fees on departmental accounts.
No action is needed at this time from either departments or study personnel. An update will be sent in a few weeks with details about the affiliate status verification process planned for September.