Events
* Event Fee
+ In-person Event
Exploring Applications of AI in Genomics and Precision Health: A Workshop
October 28, 2025. This National Academies workshop explores AI applications in genomics and precision health, highlighting the transformative potential of AI in tailoring treatments to individual genetic profiles. The program examines not only scientific opportunities but also ethical questions of privacy, informed consent, and equitable access to genomic medicine. This is central for human participant research, as genomic data are among the most sensitive data a participant can share, and AI tools heighten both the power and risks of its use. IRBs/HRPPs and researchers must therefore weigh the immense promise of AI-driven genomic insights against the need for strong safeguards that protect identity and prevent misuse.
Author: The National Academies
NetEthics: Developing Tools for Research Networks to Support Ethical & Responsible Research
November 14, 2025. This University of Minnesota–led conference addresses the complex challenges faced by multi-institutional, multidisciplinary research teams, such as resolving ethical disputes across diverse institutions, promoting respectful leadership and mentoring, and ensuring responsible conduct in research involving both human participants and new technologies. The NetEthics project, funded by the National Science Foundation, provides structured tools to support integrity, protect participants, and guide ethical decision-making in these complex research environments. This initiative is vital for AI and human participant research: AI-driven studies increasingly involve distributed teams and data-sharing across networks, raising questions of privacy, accountability, and fairness.
Author: The University of Minnesota
An International Comparison: Legal, Regulatory, and Ethical Approaches to AI in Health Care
February 20, 2026. This AI-focused seminar, hosted by the HMS Center for Bioethics, is aimed at advancing researcher understanding of emerging technologies in healthcare and biomedical science and equipping investigators and oversight bodies to responsibly integrate AI into research design. For human participant research, the importance lies in building a community of informed practitioners who can anticipate risks, evaluate protocols with sophistication, and establish participant protections that keep pace with technological innovation.
Author: HMS Center for Bioethics
PRIM&R is offering several fee-based AI learning programs aimed at equipping IRB professionals, research staff, and study teams with practical AI skills. Accessible education and training empowers researchers and practitioners to design, deploy, and evaluate AI tools responsibly. Human participant research directly benefits when researchers can better understand AI’s capabilities and limitations, design ethical study protocols, and ensure that AI systems used in trials and real-world settings are both effective and safe for diverse human populations.
Authors: PRIM&R
Past Event Resources
* Event Fee
+ In-person Event
AI Digital Twins and Synthetic Data: Application to Clinical Trials
This MRCT Center event focused on digital twins and synthetic datasets as tools for accelerating clinical trials. Digital twins—virtual patient models—and synthetic datasets may reduce reliance on real participants, allowing researchers to test hypotheses in lower-risk environments. While this promises efficiency and safety, it also raises questions about validity, representativeness, and oversight. These technologies create both opportunities (reducing burdens on participants, protecting vulnerable groups) and challenges (ensuring that simulated data does not replace real participant diversity or compromise ethical standards) in human participant research.
Author: The MRCT Center
Hands‑on AI in Precision Psychiatry Workshop
This virtual workshop, hosted by MGB and HMS, complements the 5th Annual Conference on Precision Psychiatry and teaches practical AI techniques applied to real-world psychiatric data, covering supervised machine learning, deep learning for note and emotion analysis, and generative AI for supporting scientific research (e.g. literature summarization). The workshop strengthens ethical human participant research in mental health through hands-on training to help researchers design and interpret AI tools and safely evaluate AI-powered psychiatric interventions.
Authors: MGB and HMS
A Framework for Protocols Involving Artificial Intelligence (AI): Tools and Resources
On June 24, 2025, the MRCT Center, will hosted a webinar introducing a new framework developed by the MRCT Center and WCG to guide IRBs in evaluating research protocols that incorporate AI. The framework offers structured guidance grounded in U.S. regulations and ethical considerations, aiming to assist IRBs in assessing risks, benefits, and oversight needs throughout the AI development lifecycle. An expert panel will also discuss navigating ethical considerations and the concept of “AI Exceptionalism” during IRB reviews. This new framework addresses a major gap: a practical decision-making resource to guide IRBs in evaluating the ethical and regulatory implications of AI in clinical research.
Authors: MRCT and WCG
Symposium: AI, Large Language Models and Data Science Workflows in i2b2
The 2025 i2b2 tranSMART Symposium is scheduled for this June in Boston, Massachusetts. This annual event brings together experts in AI, LLMs, and data science workflows within the i2b2 platform. Overall, the symposium serves as a pivotal platform for discussing and shaping the future of AI in human participant research, promoting innovations that are both technologically advanced and ethically sound.
Author: i2b2
This upcoming Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP) event explores how AI is integrated into clinical research. It highlights how AI can improve study design, recruitment, and data analysis while also requiring researchers to navigate ethical and regulatory challenges to protect participants.
Author: ACRP
Ethics and the Law and Regulation of Medical AI
The HMS Center for Bioethics is hosted a free virtual event on Friday, March 7, that discussed the ethical considerations, regulatory frameworks, and practical applications of AI in studies involving human participants. This event helped participants stay informed about the latest developments, ethical guidelines, and best practices in incorporating AI into human participant research.
Author: HMS Center for Bioethics
This conference, hosted by the University of Minnesota’s Consortium on Law and Values, addresses the ethical challenges of using AI in research. It emphasizes the need for ethical guidelines when implementing AI in studies involving human subjects. Discussions focus on ensuring that AI applications respect participant rights, maintain data privacy, and produce unbiased results, which are fundamental to the integrity of human participant research.
Author: University of Minnesota’s Consortium on Law and Values
OHRP’s Research Community Forum (RCF) at Augusta University on 2/19 and 2/20
This upcoming OHRP sponsored conference focuses on how institutional review boards (IRBs) oversee AI-related research. It is crucial to human participant research because IRBs play a key role in protecting participants, ensuring that AI-driven studies meet ethical standards for consent, privacy, and data security.
Author: Augusta University and OHRP
AI in Regulatory Oversight Operations
This webinar was offered by PRIM&R on December 12, 2024 and discusses the use of AI in research oversight. It shows how AI can streamline compliance and monitoring while ensuring that studies involving participants uphold ethical and regulatory standards. The recording can be purchased for a cost.
Author: PRIM&R
2024 OHRP Exploratory Workshop – The Evolving Landscape of Human Research with AI
This livestream workshop from the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) provided details about an event focused on discussing current issues and advancements in human research protections. The aim of the workshop was to bring together experts to explore new challenges and solutions related to the ethical conduct of research involving human participants and AI.
Author: Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP)
Precision Medicine Annual Conference 2024: Education in the AI Era
This event from the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School addressed how AI is transforming precision medicine, which relies heavily on individual data (e.g., genetic, environmental). AI tools play a crucial role in analyzing vast datasets from human research participants to create personalized treatment plans. In this context, while the use of AI is advancing medical research and patient care, it also raises new considerations for data privacy and ethical oversight. Event recording and resources can be found at this link as well.
Author: Biomedical Informatics at Harvard Medical School