Animal Research CUE Sheet - 01.06.2026

A bi-monthly (ish) communication from the UMD Animal Care Program with important information to keep you right on cue!

AY 25-26 | Issue 5

Preparations for 2026

As we have successfully launched a full year of CUE Sheets and as we gear up for the Spring 2026 semester, we wanted to share some standard reminders from last year so that you can have a productive semester:

• If you have active protocols, check to see if they expire this semester so that you can renew without a lapse. See "Important Dates" below or on our website.
  • Also, make sure that personnel in your lab who will be working with animals are listed on your protocol, are up to date on PI/Animal User Training and Occupational Health enrollment, and documentation is printed and kept in your lab's training log. In the near future, each PI will receive an audit emailed from our database that can be used to check against your protocols if you like.
• For new projects, triennial renewals, and amendments with significant changes, the IACUC is utilizing a pre-review process. For new and de novo animal study protocol submissions, you must submit your protocol on the 15th day of the month BEFORE the month you wish to start animal work. Amendments are reviewed on a rolling basis as they come in and the amount of time it takes to approve an amendment varies.
• When making protocol or amendment submissions, please check for the newest template versions of the appropriate forms under "Forms and Templates" in IRBnet. Make sure you use the drop down menu at the top to choose "Documents for Researchers" for IACUC submissions.
• The next round of semi-annual inspections will occur in April 2026, and more information on Fall 2025 findings and preparations will come in March.

AAALAC Site Visit 2026

The Association for the Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC) International site visits are conducted every 3 years and Fall 2026 is our anticipated site visit. Our site visit usually occurs during the Fall inspection period of October but we do not have confirmation of our specific dates at this time—we will notify our community once we have more information.

For those interested in learning more about AAALAC and how to get prepared, please see our 2026 AAALAC Site Visit Information post.

Website Migration

Due to a new rule on digital accessibility in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), all UMD web content must be in compliance with W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, version 2.1. The IACUC team is planning a new website with a more stream-lined, task-oriented design that adheres to the University of Maryland Accessible Technology Policy. Our aim is to debut this new website on March 2, 2026.

Protocol Submission Migration

At this time, the IACUC is NOT planning to phase out the use of IRBnet as our protocol management system in January 2026. Like our human subjects research companions, we are planning to transition to Kuali, but our plans are independent from the IRB's plan. Protocol submissions and amendments for animal subjects research will continue to be processed in IRBnet throughout 2026. Researchers can expect updates on our transition over the next year via CUE Sheet communications.

Changes to Animal User Training Program

The IACUC has maintained INITIAL and REFRESHER PI/Animal User Training for the last few years. We have recently decided to implement an additional special version of the REFRESHER training for PIs ONLY. 

These "PI-Specific REFRESHER Animal User Training" courses will be shorter than the other, non-PI training and will provide a general overview of recent programmatic and regulatory changes as well as other topics of specific benefit to PIs. This will be followed by an opportunity for Q&A to address specific questions related to their research or related needs.

Non-PIs who have taken INITIAL training and need to renew should continue to register for the "Non-PI REFRESHER Animal User Training" offerings. New PIs and other animal users who have not taken INITIAL training should register for "INITIAL PI/Animal User Training."

The new PI-Specific REFRESHER dates and the registration link will be added to the training page and calendar soon, and will be added to future CUE Sheet announcements.

Important Dates