Welcome to the CAT’s Umbrella IRB Initiative

The CAT and Temple’s Institutional Review Board (IRB; Institutional Review Board | Office of the Vice President for Research) created a protocol by which the CAT will review and approve teaching and learning focused research (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning; SoTL) conducted here at Temple. The aim of this protocol is to provide a process for approval of research whose scope is limited to SoTL projects on our campuses and will:

• lower potential barriers hindering faculty from carrying out classroom-based research; 
• generate new best teaching practices;
• and help bolster Temple’s mission to conduct state-of-the-art research and promote evidence-based teaching practices.

Who may apply and what is the scope?

• The Umbrella IRB is for small-scale Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL; research whose scope is instructor teaching and student learning) projects conducted here at Temple. If you are interested in participating in this process, please see the contract below to determine your eligibility. If you have questions about your eligibility, please contact us at catirb@temple.edu.

What do I need to do?

• After reading through the Umbrella IRB contract to determine if your project is eligible, please complete this checklist, protocol, and consent form. Please see the Submitting Your Proposal section below to upload these completed documents and finalize your application. If you have any questions, please contact us at catirb@temple.edu.

What is the process?

• Your submission will first undergo a preliminary review by a member of the CAT research team who will then pass the review to another research team member for final review. You will be notified that your submission is approved or receive feedback for you to address for resubmission. We will do our best to attend to your application in a timely manner.

Submitting Your Proposal

• Please click here to complete a brief online form and submit your documents.

We are here for you every step of the way!

• Questions? Please email us at: [click-for-email]