Federalwide Assurance

NIH requires all ethics committees/IRBs to have active Federalwide assurances (FWAs) on file. The FWAs confirm that the institution guarantees that its researchers will follow accepted international standards for working with human subjects and their specimens or data. The FWAs are registered by the ethics committees/IRBs at the institutions with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

To determine whether your international institution's ethics committee has an active FWA on file, please check this database. Click the FWAs tab, then click Advanced Search. You can usually find your institution by entering the city and selecting your country.

Completed assurances are identified by the letters "FWA" followed by an 8-digit number. If you do not find an FWA for your institution, or if the FWA is shown to have been deactivated, please contact the International Core.

For more information about FWA numbers and the registration or renewal process, please visit this webpage or contact the International Core.