Federal regulations require that all NIH grants involving vertebrate animals be reviewed by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). The IACUC approval date on the grant application must be listed as "pending" until the Committee has had an opportunity to review and approve the application.

The grant application must address the following five points in Section F:

• Provide a detailed description of the proposed use of the animals in the work outlined in the Research Design and Methods section. Identify the species, strains, ages, sex, and numbers of animals to be used in the proposed work.
• Justify the use of animals, the choice of species, and the numbers to be used. If animals are in short supply, costly, or to be used in large numbers, provide an additional rationale for their selection and numbers.
• Provide information on the veterinary care of the animals involved.
• Describe the procedures for ensuring that discomfort, distress, pain, and injury will be limited to that which is unavoidable in the conduct of scientifically sound research. Describe the use of analgesic, anesthetic, and tranquilizing drugs and/or comfortable restraining devices, where appropriate, to minimize discomfort, distress, pain, and injury.
• Describe any method of euthanasia to be used and the reasons for its selection. State whether this method is consistent with the recommendations of the Panel on Euthanasia of the American Veterinary Medical Association. If not, present a justification for not following the recommendations.

Please be aware that approval must be granted prior to award of funds. Some agencies may require earlier notification of approval. Once notified by NIH of the funding status, investigators must follow one of the following procedures:

• If using an IACUC approved protocol, please submit copies of the following:
  • the grant face page
  • the project summary (page 2)
  • Section F Vertebrate Animals
  • the IACUC approved protocol
• If the grant is being submitted with the new IACUC protocol approval pending, please provide the above items when submitting your new protocol. Instructions and deadlines for protocol submission are located at the IACUC website: http://intranet.med.cornell.edu/research/iacuc/index.html.

NOTE: If the project involve collaboration with an investigator at another institution and that investigator will be conducting the animal work, you may qualify for expedited review. Please review the Policy for Collaborative Projects Involving the Use of Live Animals and contact the IACUC office (212-821-0668) for clarifications.

Upon approval of a grant, the investigator will receive a Verification of Approval form that is to be sent to the funding agency with the grant number that was assigned by NIH.

If the grant involves the use of rDNA or transgenic animals, the form "Certificate of Registration for Research Using Recombinant DNA or Transgenic Animals" must be completed. The form can be obtained from the Grants and Contract Office or by visiting the IBC website: http://intranet.med.cornell.edu/research/ibc.html.