If you are being asked for verification of IACUC approval, it is important to know the difference between an IACUC Approval Letter and a Grant Congruence Letter.
Federal regulations and UW IACUC Policy require IACUC review and approval for use of live vertebrate animals or cephalopods in research, teaching, or testing at the University of Washington.
Additionally, NIH and other funding agencies require verification that a grant and the protocol it funds are congruent – that the science being paid for is the science being done.
At the UW, the Office of Animal Welfare (OAW) manages both of these processes, but these processes are not the same, and an approval letter for one cannot serve for the other.
An IACUC Protocol Approval Letter, which is generated from Hoverboard, is IACUC-protocol-specific and is only valid for showing that the Principal Investigator (PI) has an approved animal use protocol. It does not verify that the work on that protocol is congruent with any specific grant or contract, and thus is not acceptable for such verification as required by the sponsor.
Example of IACUC Protocol Approval Letter
A Grant Congruence Letter, or “Grant Approval Letter”, is eGC1-specific and is generated by OAW staff after completing a side-by-side grant-protocol congruence review. It can be used to verify to the sponsor that the grant and the IACUC protocol are congruent. These letters are attached to the associated IACUC protocol(s) in HoverBoard, and are also accessible in the SAGE system.
Example of Grant Congruence Letter
If your sponsor requests verification of IACUC approval, or if you are unsure about what documentation is needed, please reach out to oawrss@uw.edu as early as possible.
For additional information, view our congruence review information above or visit our FAQ page.