The following additional requirements will be dependent upon the type of application and proposed activities. Compliance with environmental, human subject, animal study, and chemical hazards protocols is required and will be considered by reviewers while assessing the scientific and technical merit of the proposal.
(i) Protections for Human Subjects Applicants must assure that all human subjects are protected. Reviewers will assess the potential risk to human subjects in proposed research and evaluate what protections are in place to guard against any research-related risk. Please ensure that you address the following in your proposal: 1) risk to subjects; 2) adequacy of protection against risks; 3) potential benefits to the subjects and others; 4) importance of the knowledge to be gained; and 5) data and safety monitoring for clinical trials. Proposals will not be funded until assurances from appropriate review committees (i.e. Institutional Review Boards, Bioethics Committee) are on file from both the Pakistani and the U.S. sides. The U.S. Department of Human Services has developed "decision charts" that may be useful in thinking through relevant human subject protections issues. Please visit http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/policy/checklists/decisioncharts.html for additional information.
(ii) Protections of Vertebrate Animals If you are planning to use live vertebrate animals in the project, you must adhere to international standards and acceptable practices. The reviewers will evaluate the involvement of live vertebrate animals as part of the scientific merits of the proposal. Please ensure that you address the following in your proposal: 1) proposed use of the animals, and species, strains, ages, sex, and numbers to be used; 2) justifications for the use of animals and numbers proposed; 3) adequacy of veterinary care; 4) procedures for limiting discomfort, distress, pain and injury to that which is unavoidable in the conduct of scientifically sound research including the use of analgesic, anesthetic, and tranquilizing
drugs and/or comfortable restraining devices; and 5) methods of euthanasia. Proposals will not be funded until assurances from appropriate review committees (i.e. Institutional Review Boards, Bioethics Committee) are on file from both the Pakistani and the U.S. sides.
(iii) Chemical Hazards Ammonium nitrate and calcium ammonium nitrate are marketed and used as fertilizers for agricultural applications, and as explosives for construction/demolition applications. None of the funds made available under the Pakistan - U.S. S&T Cooperation Program for Pakistani or U.S. researchers shall be used, directly or indirectly, to produce, acquire, use, transport, store, sell or otherwise deal with ammonium nitrate or calcium ammonium nitrate.