Posted December 3, 2021 by Tiffany Lee
On Jan. 10, 2022, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Institutional Review Board will begin providing access to a new training program for community research partners. In community-engaged research, sometimes referred to as community-based participatory research, academic researchers collaborate with partners from non-academic settings including community agencies, health care delivery organizations, public health departments and schools.
Due to federal and institutional policies, these partners are often required to complete human subjects protection training. At Nebraska, this has always been provided through the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative, or CITI, program. But CITI, like most research-related training programs, is geared toward those with an understanding of research methods and some research experience. These programs do not address the context of community-engaged research partners.
To fill that gap, Nebraska research personnel will soon be able to direct community research partners to the CIRTification training program. This free training program was developed by the University of Illinois Chicago and can be administered in-person or online. IRB staff will be able to track and document training completion in a manner similar to CITI training procedures.
CIRTification is an alternative human research protection training that shares relevant, meaningful information to help community partners translate their unique knowledge and skills to research collaborations. CIRTification training will be accepted only for community research partners. Most university research personnel, including faculty and students, will still be required to complete CITI human subjects training. Please contact the IRB for more information or questions about CIRTification and to see how you can incorporate it into your protocol or community conversations. Check for updated information on the IRB training webpage and for additional CIRTification learning sessions to be added soon.
