Notice Number: NOT-OD-13-110

Key Dates
Release Date: August 30, 2013

NOT-OD-13-107

Issued by
National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Purpose

The purpose of this notice is to clarify the NIH Policy on Mitigating Risks of Life Sciences Dual Use Research of Concern. The original Notice included language requiring the participation of " the Institutional Biosafety Committee, or another appropriate review body " in the institution's assessment of the DURC status of the research proposed. This incorrectly implied that institutions must now begin establishing institutional DURC review entities and conducting DURC reviews.

Instead, NIH is clarifying the Implementation section to read as follows:

“NIH will conduct an administrative review of all current and future awards to determine if they involve research that could be considered DURC. If NIH identifies a project that may be considered DURC, it will work collaboratively with the institution and grantee to develop a risk mitigation plan, which may be implemented through a term of award. NIH may request that institutions periodically review a project for its DURC potential and share any resulting manuscripts with their Program Official prior to submitting the manuscript to a journal.”

Inquiries

General inquiries about this Guide Notice should be directed to:

Office of Biotechnology Activities
Office of Science Policy
National Institutes of Health
Telephone: 301-496-9838
Fax: 301-496-9839
Email: [email protected]

Inquiries regarding specific grant applications or projects should be directed to the assigned Program Official of the relevant NIH Institute or Center.