Reducing Noncompliance While Facilitating Research:
Strategies for IACUCs

Noncompliance in animal research is defined as any action that does not adhere to federal regulations and policy, an institutional policy, or the approved protocol. Fostering a culture of compliance is essential to ensuring animal welfare, institutional credibility, and positive working relationships between researchers and the IACUC.

Through interactive scenarios and case studies, an attending veterinarian (AV) and an IACUC training and compliance manager will discuss ways to encourage a culture of compliance at your institution without impeding research. During this intermediate-level webinar, presenters will:

• Review basic reporting requirements for regulatory/accreditation bodies including OLAW, USDA, and AAALAC, and discuss the gray area of when and how to report a noncompliance event, considering issues such as species, funding source, and institutional assurances and/or program descriptions
• Clarify the differences among regulatory noncompliance, noncompliance with institutional policies, and noncompliance with approved protocols, and discuss differences in causes of noncompliance (i.e. lack of training vs. disregard for established policy)
• Discuss when to suspend an individual, an animal activity, or a protocol and who has the authority to do this
• Consider issues related to whistleblowers
• Provide strategies for reducing noncompliance by researchers and animal care staff, including enhanced oversight of noncentralized animal care and use areas; use of sustained release analgesia; and focused communication, training, and education
• Discuss how partnerships with other institutional departments (such as Environmental Health and Safety) and engagement with your Institutional Official can contribute to reducing institutional noncompliance
• Discuss how institutions can utilize post-approval monitoring (PAM) as a strategy to reduce noncompliance by improving the communication of policies, reducing protocol drift, and establishing a rapport between researchers and the IACUC

What will I learn?

After attending this webinar, attendees will be able to:

• Understand the potential complexities of noncompliance, and when and how to report it to the appropriate regulatory and funding agencies and to AAALAC
• Navigate complex situations such as whistleblower reporting and suspension of research activity
• Employ strategies for fostering a culture of compliance without impeding research, including improved communication and training with investigators and animal care staff; interdepartmental partnership; and post-approval monitoring

Who should attend?

This intermediate-level webinar will benefit IACUC staff and members; institutional officials; attending veterinarians; and investigators and research staff that work with animals.