Action on proposals shall be taken within 30 days of their submission before granting approval. Each research project must receive prior approval by the Head of Research Center before the research project can begin. The Head calls the Research Project Approval Committee (RPAC) to convene and discuss proposals. The RPAC consists of a full professor faculty member, who will chair the committee, one associate professor faculty member, two qualified faculty members from the same discipline as the submitted research project. By majority vote, the committee communicates a written recommendation to the Head of Research Center to approve or reject the project. The Head may waive specific requirements requested by the committee if found to be in the best interest to the University, without putting at risk the research project and the concerned investigator(s) and participants. The Head of Research Center sends a written notification of the final decision to the investigator(s) who submitted the research proposal.
Any proposed changes to the research project must be submitted to the RPAC for additional review and approval by the Head before any modifications are implemented. Once a research project has been approved, any further changes are subject to the approval of the Head of Research Center.