Off-site Storage at Non-profit Organizations
You should refer to this page only if you are storing specimens at a university, such as your affiliate, or other non-profit organization. The PI or the VA research office must apply for a waiver before human biological specimens are sent outside of the VA.
How to Apply for an Off-site Tissue Banking Waiver
Please click the non-profit application link at the bottom of the page in order to access the form. Please complete all fields in the form unless directed to skip a section. The form is a fillable pdf which should be saved to your computer before entering any information. It can be completed using Adobe reader version 7.0 or higher. The following documents, which are also listed on page 6 of the application form, must be submitted when applying:
- Informed Consent (Non-profit Informed Consent Guidance 26 KB, PDF)
- HIPAA authorization document (Must be a separate, stand-alone document)
- Research protocol
- Information regarding the bank's policies, mechanisms of tissue acquisition and redistribution, and all oversight mechanisms in place (or complete the Tissue Bank Operations Sheet 41KB, PDF )
*We encourage you to submit your application before you have IRB approval, because often elements are missing, and we can point this out before you request IRB review. In addition, we can provide approval of your application that is contingent on IRB approval of the consent form. The approval of your application would also be contingent on the final study approval by the IRB committee and R&D committee, or ACOS of R&D.
Please email all materials to the offsite tissue banking mailbox (link below) or Kristina Hill (kristina.hill@va.gov). If emailing is not possible there is a fax number and mailing address on the last page of the application. Emailing does ensure quicker review.