Animal Research CUE Sheet - 08.05.2025
August 05, 2025
Animal Care and Use Express (CUE) Sheet
A bi-monthly (ish) communication with important information to keep you right on cue!
AY 25-26 | Issue 2
August 5, 2025
The first day of Fall classes is September 2nd and our IACUC and DLAR staff are gearing up for an exciting semester! This newsletter will outline some important reminders, updates, and other information to help you prepare.
Reminders
- Check Your Protocol Expiration Dates. This is especially important for those PIs with teaching/training protocols—make sure your protocol does not expire during the semester if you will be teaching with animals this Fall semester. Your new submissions must be in before August 15 to be reviewed at the September meeting.
- No IACUC Meeting in August. We will use our Designated Member Review process for amendments, renewals, and certain other types of protocols, but if you are designing a new and/or complex protocol, please note that the submission will likely be reviewed at our September meeting.
- Check Training for Your Lab Personnel. Make sure you and your staff are up to date on training, including PI/Animal User Training (dates below!), Occupational Health Enrollment, and other lab specific training. We recently created a database of Animal User Training and Occ Health expiration dates for all known, current lab personnel. Renée Kahn will be reaching out to PIs with lists later this month.
- A Note About Emails. Emails and other announcements relevant to IACUC activities for PIs, Department Chairs, Deans, etc., may come from any member of the IACUC Administrative Office Team. We will do our best to consolidate and filter information via email in order to avoid unnecessarily filling up your inbox, but please check all emails from Pam Lanford, Shannon Stutler, Renée Kahn, Cecily Holland and Scotty Beland to ensure you are up to date.
DLAR Community Dialogue
Under the leadership of our new AV, Dr. Luis Lugo organized and delivered the inaugural DLAR Community Dialogue session on Friday, July 25th. These dialogues will occur quarterly and up to 2 hours of time will be reserved to accommodate for presentations from DLAR staff and questions from attendees.
DLAR has several exciting updates to share from new services, information about centralization, and new methods for reporting animal health concerns and animal census. You may have received some information about these topics from the DLAR team in a separate email, but just in case you missed it—you can use the links below to see the slides and/or recording.
The next DLAR Community Dialogue will be on October 24th, 2025 from 12-2 pm. Please save the date in your calendar and be on the lookout for communications from the DLAR Team with more information.
To mitigate cross-listing and extra emails, the DLAR Team will also be creating their own listservs and communications strategy for disseminating this news with you in the future. If you have any questions about the slides or recording, please email dlarmgmt@umd.edu.
Digital Census for PI-Managed Housing Areas
In order to collect animal census reports from our PI-Managed Housing Areas, we have created custom Google Sheets for each lab and a smoother process to replace our previous one. All of those PIs have been contacted via email, and Scotty Beland is setting up quick (15-minute) appointments to set up the sheets and integrate them with each lab. This does not replace the in-lab daily husbandry and census logs. You must continue to document animals euthanized and alert the AV of any unanticipated deaths. If you have not yet met with Scotty, please email him at sbeland@umd.edu.
Also, if you have not already done so, please submit your July census reports to your appropriate NEW census sheets. Any questions, concerns, or difficulty with this process should also be reported to Scotty.
Other Reminders
- A version of these emails and other important announcements are now archived on the IACUC website “News & Announcements” page for your reference.
- DLAR and the UAV would like to remind you to submit all animal health logs when appropriate to dlar@umd.edu.
- Any questions about ASP submissions, amendments, approvals, grants congruency, and meeting schedules should be directed to iacuc@umd.edu. These emails go to the IACUC Administrative Office Team and are more likely to be responded to efficiently.
2026 IACUC Meeting Dates
Due to the variable nature and volume of protocols reviewed in any given month, we cannot provide exact timelines for approval. We recommend submitting your protocol 3 months prior to whenever you intend to start your work with animals.
Meeting Dates | PIs Submit Protocol By | PIs Submit Pre-Review Modifications By |
September 17, 2026 | August 15, 2026 | September 9, 2026 |
October 15, 2026 | September 15, 2026 | October 7, 2026 |
November 19, 2026 | October 15, 2026 | November 11, 2026 |
December 17, 2026 | November 15, 2026 | December 9, 2026 |
*NO AUGUST MEETING | The IACUC will try to send projects submitted during this time to DMR. Those called for FCR will go to the September meeting.
2027 IACUC Meeting Dates
Due to the variable nature and volume of protocols reviewed in any given month, we cannot provide exact timelines for approval. We recommend submitting your protocol 3 months prior to whenever you intend to start your work with animals.
Meeting Dates | PIs Submit Protocol By | PIs Submit Pre-Review Modifications By |
January 28, 2027 | December 15, 2026 | January 20, 2027 |
February 25, 2027 | January 15, 2027 | February 17, 2027 |
March 25, 2027 | February 15, 2027 | March 12, 2027 |
April 22, 2027 | March 15, 2027 | April 14, 2027 |
May 27, 2027 | April 15, 2027 | May 19, 2027 |
June 24, 2027 | May 15, 2027 | June 16, 2027 |
July 22, 2027 | June 15, 2027 | July 14, 2027 |
NO AUGUST MEETING!* | ||
*NO AUGUST MEETING | The IACUC will try to send projects submitted during this time to DMR. Those called for FCR will go to the September meeting.
Fall 2026 PI/Animal User Training Dates
| NEW PI/Animal User Training | NON-PI Refresher Training | PI-SPECIFIC Refresher Training |
|---|---|---|
New PI/Animal User Training is required for all new PIs, students, assistants, etc., who will work directly with animals. This includes all handling, husbandry, procedures, transportation, etc. | NON-PI Refresher Animal User Training is required every 3 years in order to continue working with animals. | PI-SPECIFIC Refresher Animal User Training is required for all PIs with approved UMD IACUC protocols every 3 years in order to continue working with animals. |
| September 15, 2026 at 11:30 am | September 25, 2026 at 10 am | September 23, 2026 at 10:30 am |
| September 24, 2026 at 10 am | October 5, 2026 at 10:30 am | October 6, 2026 at 1:30 pm |
| October 2, 2026 at 12 pm | October 20, 2026 at 9 am | October 22, 2026 at 8 am |
| October 6, 2026 at 3 pm | November 6, 2026 at 1:30 pm | November 6, 2026 at 9 am |
| October 14, 2026 at 12:30 pm | November 17, 2026 at 11 am | November 16, 2026 at 11 am |
| October 22, 2026 at 10 am | December 2, 2026 at 2:30 pm | December 1, 2026 at 4 pm |
| October 30, 2026 at 12 pm | December 17, 2026 at 2 pm | December 14, 2206 at 3 pm |
| November 10, 2026 at 11 am | ||
| November 19, 2026 at 2 pm |