What procedure must be described in an agreement called an Assurance of compliance with a US federal agency?

Employees and agents of the institution holding an approved FWA are covered whenever they are involved in the conduct of research covered by the FWA. Employees and agents, including students, are individuals performing institutionally designated activities and acting on behalf of the institution or exercising institutional authority or responsibility.

An institution holding an OHRP-approved FWA (hereafter referred to as the assured institution) may extend the applicability of its FWA to cover two types of collaborating individual investigators: collaborating independent investigators and collaborating institutional investigators.

1. A collaborating independent investigator is:
   1. not otherwise an employee or agent of the assured institution;
   2. conducting collaborative research activities outside the facilities of the assured institution; and
   3. not acting as an employee of any institution with respect to his or her involvement in the research being conducted by the assured institution.
2. A collaborating institutional investigator is:
   1. not otherwise an employee or agent of the assured institution;
   2. conducting collaborative research activities outside the facilities of the assured institution;
   3. acting as an employee or agent of an institution that does not hold an OHRP-approved FWA with respect to his or her involvement in the research being conducted by the assured institution; and employed by, or acting as an agent of, an institution that does not hold an OHRP-approved FWA and does not routinely conduct human subjects research.

The extension of an assured institution’s FWA to cover a collaborating individual investigator should be documented using an Individual Investigator Agreement (IIA) or another similar agreement developed by the institution holding the FWA (see http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/regulations-and-policy/guidance/extension-of-institutional-fwa-via-individual-investigator-agreement/index.html for OHRP’s guidance on the use of the IIA and the link to the sample IIA document).

If HHS-conducted or -supported human subjects research activities routinely occur at a non-assured institution, the institution should obtain an OHRP-approved FWA, and the IIA (or similar agreements) should not be used. Also, if the non-assured institution is the primary awardee for an HHS-supported award providing support for non-exempt human subjects research, the institution must obtain its own OHRP-approved FWA. If an institution is uncertain about the need for its own FWA, it should consult with OHRP.

NOTE: All previous types of sample agreements to cover an independent investigator [i.e., Agreement for Independent Investigators (AII), Non-Institutional Investigator Agreement (NIA), and Unaffiliated Investigator Agreement (UIA)] have been replaced by the sample Individual Investigator Agreement (IIA). Previously executed AIIs, NIAs, and UIAs may remain in effect until all applicable research that has already been initiated is completed or until the previous agreement has been replaced by a new Individual Investigator Agreement modeled on the OHRP sample IIA, or by a comparable written agreement developed by an assured institution.