New terms and conditions are being embedded in Federal grant award documentation and impose significant safety and reporting requirements related to unanticipated dangerous outcomes of research. Review your award documentation carefully for action triggers and reporting requirements.

Spring is here and Summer is coming… here’s some news everyone can use!

Are you adding undergraduate students from other institutions to your protocol for the summer?

UVM offers “one-stop” service for getting them access to IT resources and facilities access as needed.

Visiting Undergraduate Students

2026 Research Buildings Annual Utilities Shutdown Schedule

IBC Updates

IACUC Updates

In anticipation of summer travel and sabbaticals, the IACUC reminds all Principal Investigators that if you have travel plans or have extended time away from campus (for medical, academic, or administrative leave), you must assign a fellow faculty member in UVMCLICK to have oversight of your research animals. This oversight may not be relinquished to post-doctoral fellows, or graduate students. The IACUC must remain able to communicate with you via email in a prompt manner in the event of animal welfare issues.

Policy Update - 15.9 Environmental Enrichment and Social Housing for Laboratory Animal

New Text: Male mice may only be housed together if they are co-housed at the time of weaning and they are no older than 24 days of age.  Males from different litters may be co-housed if these two conditions are met.   Male mice weaned on different days should not be co-housed as social hierarchies can develop quickly.  Male mice removed from co-housed males for breeding experimental purposes for more than 24 hours should not be returned to the original cage of males as aggression may result.

Policy Update - 15.6 Euthanasia Methods

New Text: The “open drop” method is permitted only under very limited, short duration circumstances and with strict safety controls such as a chemical fume hood, a hard-ducted biosafety cabinet, or an appropriate active or passive anesthesia scavenging system. The use of the open drop method must be justified in the protocol and approved by the IACUC. This method may not be used for euthanasia, or for anesthesia for a procedure prior to euthanasia, in a laboratory or animal facility setting where precision anesthetic gas vaporizers are available.

OACM Updates

As of May 1^st, 2026, OACM simplified room level numbers in UVM facilities:

OACM facility room levels are now 0 through 6.

Level 0 – HSRF 005E

Level 1 – all other HSRF housing rooms and chemical hazard room

Level 2 – HSRF 005A (ABSL-2 room)

Level 3 – all mouse rooms in Given, Dewey, and CRF

Level 4 – all rat rooms in Given, Dewey, and CRF

Level 5 – Ungulate 117

Level 6 – Quarantine at Given and CRF, VDHL 2602A (ABSL-3)

All rooms will continue to be labelled with the room level number and PPE requirements. We will continue to require that personnel move through the facility rooms in ascending number, not entering a lower numbered room after you have entered a room with a higher number.

OACM now has new color on the circle sticker key – PINK!

Pink circle stickers will indicate that there is a cage card correction needed, based on observations of discrepancies. Examples would be if the number of animals in the cage does not match the number of animals on the cage card, or if the card indicates it is a cage of males and there are females in the cage. OACM staff will apply a pink circle sticker to the cage and email a picture of the cage card with what needs correction.

Researchers will have 72 hrs. to correct cage cards, consistent with our other procedures.

Also, on May 1^st, OACM transitioned the monthly billing for animal care services from paper census to VOS.

Important Reminders:

1. Transfers are required when moving animals from protocol to protocol, room to room, or both. 
2. Effective May 1st, if transfers are found to be missing, Animal Care staff will enter the missing transfer and bill the penalty fee per occurrence.
3. Please remember to retire cages on the day they are removed from Active status.

Controlled Substances Updates

REMINDER: Controlled substances can only be used within the building listed on the DEA registration under which they were ordered.  Controlled substances must be stored in at the location specified in the registration, in a double-locked, substantially constructed cabinet that is fixed in place as approved by the DEA.  If controlled substances are to be used in a different room or location within the building where they are stored, they must be transported in a portable, locked box. This applies to all UVM buildings, regardless of whether they are connected.  Given, HSRF, and Firestone have separate 911 addresses and are all considered separate buildings from the DEA’s perspective.

UVM strongly recommends labs audit their controlled substance inventory and logbooks at 6-month intervals (more often than the DEA requirement of every 2 years), to detect any discrepancies in a timely manner and to facilitate a timely and accurate reconciliation.

EHS Updates

As the Research Protections Office continues to align and coordinate with Environmental Health and Safety in the oversight of research safety, we encourage all labs working under IBC or IACUC permits to register your lab in SciShield. 

Work is underway to link more CITI trainings through SciShield, which then updates training completions into UVMClick. This also allows IBC staff to access SciShield and ChemTracker to review chemical safety data sheets, and lab inspection data.

Catamount Compliance Clinic

Get your protocols well! * Remedy all your requests for modifications! * Cure all your comments! Get answers from the Research Protections Office, Environmental Health & Safety, and Office of Animal Care & Management

In-person work sessions are in HSRF from 9 AM – 11 AM on the last Wednesday of the month.

Upcoming Sessions: 

• Wednesday, May 27, 2026
• Wednesday, June 24, 2026

Please drop in with your questions and your laptop!  We are here to help. 

Too busy to drop in? Check out the online Help Guides:

IACUC UVMClick Guides

IBC. UVMClick Guides