The National Institutes of Health suspended seven research grants at Durham, N.C.-based Duke University in 2018 due to safety concerns involving research participants, reports Medscape Medical News.
In a December 2017 letter to NIH, Duke highlighted concerns of research misconduct by leaders in its psychology department. Misconduct allegations included not following research plans, not reporting adverse events to the Institutional Review Board, and signing data forms without conducting assessments, according to a letter NIH sent Duke in March 2018.
NIH suspended Duke's grants that month after the university failed to address the agency's "overarching concern for the welfare and safety of research participants as well as several pertinent questions concerning the reported research irregularities," NIH wrote in the letter cited by Medscape.
NIH and Duke did not disclose which grants or investigators were involved in the allegations. A spokesperson for Duke told Medscape that the grants are no longer suspended.