What constitutes a quorum for IACUC purposes?
A quorum is defined by AWA regulations as a majority of the members. All official votes must gain a majority of votes from a quorum present. “No member may participate in the IACUC review or approval of an activity in which that member has a conflict of interest (e.g., is personally involved in that activity)…nor may a member who has a conflicting interest contribute to the constitution of a quorum.” (AWA regulations) This is a problem for facilities who try to use the Program Director as member of the IACUC and Principal Investigator for all protocols, especially if they minimize the size of their IACUC. It would be preferable to have enough IACUC members to allow any IACUC member who is also the Principal Investigator for a protocol to recuse him/herself from the voting.
