Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)

Training - Required

Online CITI IACUC training will be provided to all scientists, research technicians, animal technicians, and other personnel involved in live vertebrate animal care, treatment, and use conforming to those requirements outlined in 9CFR2.32.  The committee and each investigator will assure that personnel are qualified to perform their specific duties.  The training and instruction will be made available, and the qualifications of personnel reviewed, with sufficient frequency to fulfill TAMIU’s responsibility as specified in 9CFR Subpart A and as specified in the TAMIU IACUC Policy and Procedures manual. 

Currently Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) is not mandatory unless working on a federally funded project.  However, that may be changing next year.  RCR training is required every four years or once per level (ie. once as an undergraduate, once as a master's student etc.).  All trainings may be completed over multiple sessions. 

How to sign up for CITI IACUC and RCR Training

Initial IACUC training takes about 3 hours and a refresher course is required every 2 years.

If you have any difficulties getting signed up for CITI,
contact Celeste Kidd for assistance, celeste.kidd@tamiu.edu, 326-3028.

1.  Go to CITI home page, click on "register here" link for new users

2. Complete Registration Steps

Step 1 - Select Texas A&M International
Step 2 - Enter a user name and password
Step 3 - Enter your name
Step 4 - Enter your email address
Step 5 - Select "no"
Step 6 - Select "yes" or "no", and Submit

3.  Member Information

Step 7 - Fill in form

a.  for the "role in human subjects research", select appropriate level: 
"principal investigator", "student researcher - undergraduate" or "student researcher - graduate level"

b.  for the "office phone" - enter lab phone number

c.  for "which course do you plan to take", select "laboratory animal welfare"

4.  Select Curriculum

Question 1 - select "I work with the LabAnimal."

Figure 1

Question 2 - select "working with the IACUC course" box

and select species specific box (if training module available for species you work with)

Example: you want to work with rats, then you select:  "I work with rats.  Genus:  Rattus" (see Figure 2)

note:  if working with rats or mice and your research could cause pain or distress to the rats, then you must also complete "Post-Procedure Care of Mice and Rats in Research, Basic Course" (see Figure 2)

Figure 2

and for non-rodent species, if you will be doing any surgeries (survival or non-survival), then you must select "Do you conduct major survival surgery or non-survival surgeries in non-rodent species?" (see Figure 3)

Figure 3

 

Question 3 - Your advisor will tell you which option to select,

either the "social and behavioral responsible conduct of research course" or "not at this time, thank you" and then "Continue"(see Figure 4)

Figure 4

 

5.  Main menu

You should now see a list all courses you are enrolled in.  For the example above for working with rats, you would see the following courses:

Investigators, staff and students, Basic course 
Post-Procedure Care of Mice and Rats in Research, Basic Course
Working with Rats in Research Settings, Basic Course

For those who work with non-rodent species and will do surgeries, you should see:

Investigators, staff and students, Basic course
Aseptic surgery, Basic course
Working With Amphibians in Research Settings, Basic Course    (a species specific module, if applicable)

If you selected a Responsible Conduct of Research course, it would be listed here too.                     

Social and Behavioral Responsible Conduct of Research, Basic Course

                                                 

If you don't see all of these, click on the "add a course or update your learner groups" link, and add the missing course.  Click "enter" to begin one of the courses and you will see a list of all the modules for the course.  On the top of the page will be the score you must have to successfully complete the course and what your current score is.  Quizzes at the end of each module can be retaken and the best grade will be saved.

Click on the "integrity assurance statement" link, complete that and continue taking the course. 

After course is complete, print out two copies of the completion report and give one copy to the principal investigator (usually your advisor) and submit the other copy to the Office of Research and Sponsored Projects (KL 326), who will be monitoring compliance of these trainings.  Principal Investigators are required to maintain documentation of training of all researchers involved in the project with their research documents for three years after completion of the project.

 

     I.  Guide to the IACUC Application Process - Researchers Start Here

    II.  IACUC Forms, Guidelines/Regulations and Useful Links

   III.  Training - Required

   IV.  IACUC Members

    V.  Frequently Asked Questions

   VI.  IACUC Letter of Assurance

 VII.  Classroom Research Guidelines

VIII.  TAMIU IACUC Policy and Procedures Manual (available from IACUC Chair)

 

If you have questions, please contact the IACUC Chair, Dr. Thomas Vaughan, (tvaughan@tamiu.edu, LBVSC 312B, 956-326-2592         

 

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