Research activities involving human subjects – a living individual about whom an investigator conducting research obtains data through intervention or interaction with the individual or identifiable private information – must be reviewed and approved by the Committee for Protection of Human Subjects (CPHS). Berkeley Law Principal Investigators who use surveys and interviews involving communication or interpersonal contact with subjects to generate research data, for example, must have their protocols approved by CPHS.
Applications to conduct research with human subjects are submitted to CPHS by Principal Investigators via a web-based system called Berkeley eProtocol. Sample forms, an explanation of the types of review, step-by-step application instructions and the system login can be found on the Berkeley eProtocol website.
There are no deadlines for submission – applications are reviewed by CPHS as they come in and in the order they are received. This review process may take up to 8 weeks.
A proposal may be developed and submitted to the Sponsored Projects Office with the Human Subjects protocol approval pending; however, the Principal Investigator will need to complete the approval process before the research activity may commence.