UW–Madison obtains Human Subjects Accreditation for research

The Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP), the not-for-profit entity that seeks to raise the level of protection for human research subjects, announced in December that UW–Madison is one of 21 newly accredited research organizations.

“For us, this was a huge step,” says William Mellon, Graduate School associate dean for research policy.

Regulating human subjects research on the UW–Madison campus, Mellon explains, is a large and complex activity with four different institutional review boards and approximately 4,000 research protocols that involve human subjects.

The UW–Madison accreditation includes its two affiliated entities, the UW Hospital and Clinics Authority and the UW Medical Foundation.

AAHRPP accreditation means the university meets a series of prescribed standards for conducting research with human subjects. AAHRPP accreditation is available to U.S. and international organizations that conduct biomedical, behavioral, educational or social sciences research and is good for three years. Accreditation is awarded to institutions that can demonstrate human subject safeguards that surpass the threshold of state and federal rules and regulations.