January 14, 2000

NIH Begins Review Designed to Offer Regulatory Relief to Researchers

By JEFFREY BRAINARD

Before scholars can even apply for grants from the National Institutes of Health to study human subjects, their universities must clear a potentially high hurdle: approving safety protocols for each project, which include ensuring that the subjects will give informed consent and will be aware of all risks. That process can take weeks, and often it ends in frustration. The agency approves only about one-third of all grant applications involving human subjects.

The requirement annoys

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