Impact of Campus Budget Cuts on OPHS

Campus Update: July 2017

In response to campus budget reductions required to eliminate the deficit at UC Berkeley that the Office of the President has stipulated, the Office for Protection of Human Subjects (OPHS) has reduced the number of administrative staff processing protocols by 14% (i.e. 1.07 FTE).

The loss of OPHS personnel will require changes in OPHS’s service model. The following information is provided to help the campus both understand and adjust to these changes. Other service changes may be forthcoming as we move into the academic year.

OPHS Staff Accessibility

Accessibility to staff by phone via Analyst of the Day has been reduced. OPHS will only answer the office phone line in the afternoon and strongly encourages researchers to contact the office via email at ophs@berkeley.edu. The duration of phone consults will be limited to 15 minutes or less. Please do not call and email us on the same question/issue!

Educational Outreach

Educational outreach presentations about human subjects research, CPHS, and eProtocol will be suspended.

Protocol Processing

Turn-around times for protocol reviews and approvals will increase.

Just-in-time (JIT) Institutional Review Board (IRB) review requests from federal funding agencies will be honored; all other requests for “speedy” or “fast” review will go in the queue when a complete protocol is submitted.