NIH and its partners encourage any interested individual to sign up to provide oral comments during the listening session. All comments offered at the listening session are welcome and will be considered, including topics covered at previous sessions. Feedback on the following topics is particularly encouraged.
The utility of agent risk groups (RGs) as a starting point in determining appropriate containment for specific experiments
Opportunities to improve IBC functions and advance transparency
Committee activities: Options for expedited reviews (e.g., chair/less than full committee, BSO) including situations or types of research, if any, where expedited reviews would be appropriate
Roles and responsibilities of institutions, IBCs, investigators, and NIH to strengthen compliance and transparency
Requirements for membership (e.g., flexibility in required expertise, local members)
Requirements for improved public access to meetings and minutes
Requirements for reporting of incidents or violations to NIH (and the threshold for incident reporting)
Ways to strengthen coordination between IBCs and other institutional review bodies (e.g., Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees)
Registration
The listening session is open to the public and there is no cost to attend. Registration is required, using the form below, if you are planning to make an oral statement at the listening session. Those planning to only view the listening session are kindly requested, but not required, to register below.
NIH will host a virtual, public listening session to hear community feedback on the NIH Plan to Enhance Public Access to the Results of NIH-Supported Research (NIH Public Access Plan). The NIH Public Access Plan is currently available for public comment through a Request for Information that NIH issued in February 2023. Written RFI responses on the NIH Public Access Plan will continue to be accepted until April 24, 2023.
Members of the public can sign-up to provide oral comments at the listening session by emailing [email protected]. When requesting to provide oral comments, please provide:
Name
Professional Affiliation (optional/if applicable)
Topic(s) of Comment
The RFI for the NIH Public Access Plan lists specific areas of interest for which NIH requests additional feedback: (1) equity in publication opportunities for NIH-supported investigators, (2) equity in access and accessibility of publications, (3) methods for monitoring evolving costs and impacts on affected communities, and (4) considerations to increase findability and transparency of research. Please indicate if your comments involve any of these topics. Comments do not need to be limited to the four topic areas listed in the RFI comment form, but comments should relate to one or more aspects of the NIH Public Access Plan.
Slots for public comments will be provided in the order they are received until all slots have been filled. Requests to provide comments at the listening session must be received no later than April 10, 2023.
Please note that the listening session will be broadcast live, recorded, and posted on the OSP website, and a transcript of the listening session will be prepared. The transcript of the listening session may also be posted to the OSP website without redaction. As such, please do not include any information in your comments that you do not wish to make public. Proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should also not be included in your comments.
The NIH will be holding a workshop on Feb 27 on Using Public Engagement to Inform the Use of Data in Biomedical Research. This workshop will contextualize how public feedback can help inform the use of new types of data (e.g., wearable devices, smart sensors, social media), new types of analyses (e.g., Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning), and data linkage and aggregation in research. The information discussed will be used to help inform deliberations on the NExTRAC’s charge related to novel types and uses of data.
The meeting will outline important themes from multiple community conversations NIH has hosted across the country on these topics. It will also feature discussions from ethicists, biomedical researchers, technology engineers and developers, public health experts, and clinician researchers who might utilize novel technologies to generate data.
Opportunities to raise questions for discussion will be provided for members of the public who attend virtually.
