Center for
Human Research Coordination
Study Coordination
We coordinate screening, scheduling, transportation and more for research participants via phone, email, text or in-person.
Community Participant Registry
Our registry features over 1,700 community members eager to participate in UD research, and it's growing daily. Researchers seeking engaged participants are encouraged to contact us to learn more! chrc@udel.edu
Recruitment
CHRC helps guide faculty and their research teams with various tools to help facilitate recruitment for individual studies and registries.
Researchers Resources
Promote Your Research Study - Recruitment Tools
UD researchers can recruit participants for IRB-approved studies through a volunteer registry that includes over 1,000 local individuals interested in research participation.
Researchers can also increase visibility for their studies by listing them on the Study Listings webpage, posting flyers on campus (e.g., the STAR Campus flyer wall and digital monitors), and promoting through our social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, X, and LinkedIn).
For more information, CLICK HERE.
Facilities
ENVIRONMENT AND RESOURCES – Center for Human Research Coordination/CHRC
Center for Human Research Coordination (CHRC): This is a university-wide core facility, whose focus is supporting researchers, with participant recruitment, coordination of research participant logistics, study coordination, and data management. The core’s team includes the Associate Vice President (AVP) for Human Research, Assistant Director, Data System Analysts, Research Manager, and Research Coordinators.
The core is aimed at improving outreach for participant recruitment across Delaware and neighboring Maryland and Pennsylvania communities. CHRC will meet with researchers to assess how to assist with coordination of research subject logistics, including study coordination and recruitment. CHRC provides researcher access to UD’s Community Participant Registry and the national ResearchMatch registry. The UD registry has over 1,500 willing participant and growing every day. These registries are valuable resources that are available to UD faculty with an IRB approved study.
The center is also the administrator of UD’s REDCap instance (Research Electronic Data Capture Software). CHRC is a member of the REDCap Consortium and provides REDCap access to UD researchers. REDCap is a secured data management solution for human subject research. CHRC REDCap management includes server backup, upgrades and maintenance. CHRC data systems analyst team provides project builds and support for researchers using this powerful tool.
Budget Justification
Dr. Karin Silbernagel is the Associate Vice President (AVP) for Human Research of the Center for Human Research Coordination/CHRC. Her team includes an Assistant Director, Research Manager, Research Coordinators and Data System Analysts. This team is part of UD’s Research Office Core Facilities and provides support for researcher’s using participants in their research.
The CHRC Research Coordinator/s: In close conjunction with the research team, the CHRC Research Coordinators will coordinate participant eligibility screenings, study evaluation and follow-up testing scheduling, payments to individuals, travel arrangements if necessary, and the coordination of the study team and laboratory schedules. We have budgeted …….
The Data Systems Analysts will manage all aspects of the data management services including technical oversight of REDCap projects, project builds, as well as maintenance of the servers hosting the data and managing the intake and storage of data. They will also manage any necessary data migration, support use of REDCap, and assist with compliance of relevant data storage and retention regulations. We have budgeted………
IRB Language If Using ResearchMatch For Recruiting
Recruitment will be through ResearchMatch.org, a national web-based recruitment tool that was created through the Clinical & Translational Science Awards Consortium in 2009 and is maintained by Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC).
I am requesting IRB approval to send the following study recruitment message to potential study volunteers through ResearchMatch.org.
Note to researcher:
- The recruitment message that you send through ResearchMatch must exclude your direct study contact information (email & phone) and must not exceed 2000 characters. This content must also be approved by your institutional IRB.
- Make sure to review your site-specific instructions for any institution-specific application requirements or contact your ResearchMatch Institutional Liaison for any questions related to your institution’s IRB or Research policies. The Center for Human Research Coordination/CHRC are the liaisons for UD. chrc@udel.edu
ResearchMatch asks me to confirm that this language has been IRB approved and that my direct study contact information has been removed (email/phone).
IRB Language If Using CHRC For Recruiting Including The UD Community Participant Registry
Recruitment for human subjects/participants will be through UD’s Center for Human Research Coordination/CHRC. CHRC Recruitment efforts include information on CHRC website, UD’s Community Participant Registry, social media platforms, study information posted on monitors/wall on STAR campus, and community recruitment events.
IRB Language If Using REDCap eConsent
Please adjust language to ensure it meets how you intend to use and store the eConsents. The eConsent needs to be updated whenever there is a new stamped/dated consent forms due to IRB approved amendment and annually at the continuing review/progress report approval.
REDCap eConsent will be used to secure electronic signatures for adult participants, parents, legal guardians, children, witnesses, and study personnel. The REDCap eConsent will contain identical information as a paper consent and will have automatic archiving of signed consent documents with date and time stamps for audit purposes. PDF copies of the signed consent document can be generated to give to participants. Electronic consents will be stored in a file repository on the REDCap database system in a separate REDCap database not linked to any other REDCap databases or data.
REDCap Language In IRB Protocol
Data for this project will be stored in CHRC’s REDCap instance, a highly secure and robust web-based research data collection and management system.
Data Integrity: REDCap is managed by CHRC’s Data Systems Analysts ensuring fidelity of database configuration and back-ups. User activities are logged to enable auditing of all data changes.
Each project must have a UD full time faculty member with the User Rights privileges, and they are responsible for ensuring appropriate access/role to study data via the User Rights Module. REDCap employs a robust multi-level security system that enables researchers to easily implement “minimum necessary” data access for their research staff, including specification of data fields that are identifiers. This feature includes “single click” ability to provide completely deidentified (removing all identified data fields and shifting dates) for analysis or other purposes. All users are given individual user IDs and passwords, and their access is restricted on a role-specific basis. Each user must be sponsored by a UD full time faculty member. User activities are logged to enable auditing of all data access.
REDCap Management And Security
Features of REDCap that protect participants’ privacy and data security include:
- Physical Security: CHRC’s REDCap is hosted on virtualized servers that run on UD IT’s VMware Cluster which is located inside UD IT’s Data Center. Access to the Data Center is restricted to only authorized core personnel may access the facility un-escorted. The data center is monitored 24/7 by onsite operation staff. The REDCap server is subject to the University’s network scanning and is closely monitored for security and performance. The server is backed up nightly using VMware snapshots (by UD IT). Additionally, the database is backed up by CHRC, ensuring that the data can be made available in the event of a system issue. The nightly database backups are transferred each week to a server located in an offsite data center. Database backups are stored for 3 years.
- Electronic Security: The REDCap server is housed behind the UD firewall with exception rule to allow HTTPS traffic to/from the REDCap server. All web-based data transmissions are encrypted with industry-standard SSL methods.
