Accreditation: Get Accredited - Getting Started

Accreditation uses a set of objective Standards to evaluate the quality and level of protection that an Organization provides research participants. Through accreditation, an Organization can demonstrate the overall excellence of its research program by providing the most comprehensive protections for research participants.  

The focus of accreditation is an Organization's entire human research protection program (HRPP). Accreditation standards include three domains: the Organization, institutional review board (IRB) or Ethics Committee (EC), and researchers and research staff. Organizations can obtain accreditation even if they do not have an internal IRB or EC or do not conduct human research, such as in the case of independent IRBs. 

Most Organizations agree that the key step in the application process is completing your self-assessment, before you begin writing your application. The guide to conducting your self-assessment is the Evaluation Instrument for Accreditation. It takes you through each of the accreditation standards and the Elements that support them and shows you how to provide the information needed to meet the Standards.

When you become a client of AAHRPP, by pre-paying your application fee, our staff will work with you as you go through the evaluation instrument, so that you can conduct a self-assessment that shows you what you need to do to be awarded accreditation.