IRC Research Toolkit: Mitigating Risks to Research Participants

This document provides guidance for those conducting human subjects research on ways to mitigate risks to participants across the project cycle, from inception to close-out. Researchers are responsible for ensuring that any risk to participants is minimized to the full extent possible before beginning research activities. Additionally, the overseeing Institutional Review Board (IRB) will consider whether “risks to subjects are reasonable in relation to anticipated benefits… and the importance of the knowledge that may be reasonably expected to result,” before granting approval.