New IACUC Policy on Noncompliance

September 8, 2016

blue new policy iconIn an effort to minimize and eliminate issues of non-compliance, the Institutional Animal Care & Use Committee (IACUC) is instituting a new Investigating Noncompliance and Animal Welfare Concerns Policy effective October 1, 2016.

All Principal Investigators with previous incidents will be given a "clean slate" upon the policy's implementation.

About the Policy

As part of the new policy, a combination of tactics, including but not limited to: formal notices, training, and (when necessary) punitive measures will be used to mitigate incidents of noncompliance. Actions taken to minimize occurrences of noncompliance will be based on:

  • The seriousness of the incident and/or
  • The number of incidents that occur on all protocols under the direction of the PI

The cornerstone of this policy is a program-wide commitment to transparency through more clearly defined roles/responsibilities and a three-step corrective action escalation process pertaining to the investigation, and confirmation of, noncompliance and animal welfare concerns reported within our research community.

Next Steps

All faculty and staff involved in animal care and use are strongly encouraged to familiarize themselves with the new policy, which is summarized in the Noncompliance Policy Helpful Information Sheet.

The complete policy should also be reviewed, and is available for download here.

Questions

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Animal Care & Use Office at acuoffice@umich.edu or (734) 763-8028.