Principal Investigator Eligibility & Responsibilities
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (PI) DEFINITION
Conducting research with humans is a privilege and carries with it ethical and legal responsibilities. By Colorado State University (CSU) policy and federal regulations, the Principal Investigator (PI) is the individual responsible for writing an accurate proposal to utilize human subjects, and for designing practices and implementing the approved use(s) of those subjects. Ultimately, the PI assumes the responsibility for the ethical conduct of the project and for the welfare of the human subjects. The PI should understand and abide by all relevant federal regulations and guidelines for the use of humans in research.
CSU PERSONNEL PI ELIGIBILITY
CSU employees in the following Academic Faculty & Administrative Professional Manual appointment categories have the privilege of serving as a PI on an Institutional Review Board (IRB) protocol, if they have completed the appropriate training and experience to adequately direct the project. The IRB will consider a special request for someone out of these categories to be a PI.
- Regular Full-time
- Regular Part-time
- Multi-year Research
- Senior Teaching
- Special Appointment
- Transitional Appointment
- Administrative Professionals
- State Classified
Individuals on Temporary Appointments (e.g. Graduate Research Assistants and Postdoctoral Scholars) are not eligible to serve as PI, but can be a Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) with someone from one of the above categories as PI. Individuals on Visiting scholar or Adjunct appointments are not eligible to serve as PI due to the temporary nature of their affiliation with the university.
If you have a unique status that is not listed above, please contact an IRB Coordinator for assistance, [email protected]