EXTERNAL INVESTIGATORS

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An external investigator (EI) is any individual who is not a LSUHSC-NO (HSC) employee, faculty or student, but is "engaged" in a HSC-associated human subjects research (HSR) study or is a "key personnel" in the study.  

The EI may participate in the research if the IRB of the EI's home institution (or its designee, such as a commercial IRB) has independently reviewed and approved the study. Alternatively, the HSC IRB may agree to serve as the IRB of Record for the EI under certain conditions.

An IRB of Record is the IRB that has agreed to assume authority for IRB review and oversight of the research project and/or individual study team members

Authorization Agreements  

Before the HSC IRB will assume oversight of an EI and approve a protocol in which an EI is a study member, one of the authorization agreements found on the Agreements Template page must be fully executed.

Use this decision tree to determine which Reliance arrangement is most appropriate for the EI(s) in your research study.

Download and complete the appropriate template and, if necessary, obtain the signature of the authorized representative of the EI's institution. Then submit the partially executed agreement to the IRB Office (IRBOffice@LSUHSC.edu) for HSC institutional signature and final execution.