UNLV has recently joined the ResearchMatch network, which is currently made up of over 200 institutions dedicated to advancing discovery and health. ResearchMatch is a nonprofit program funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It helps to connect people interested in research studies with researchers from top universities across the U.S.

The Office of Clinical Trials (OCT) will oversee this national registry of volunteers who have indicated a willingness to learn more about research studies, not just for clinical trials. This registry aims to be an effective, useful, and complementary recruitment tool that connects researchers with appropriate potential subjects.

 ResearchMatch enables researchers to search for appropriate matches in non-identifiable volunteer profiles. Once study criteria are entered into the Search Builder by the researcher, the secure ResearchMatch clearinghouse will route an "IRB-approved" recruitment message to each of the potential matches. A ResearchMatch dashboard will display volunteers who reply and will provide aggregate figures/charts demonstrating the response rate to the initial recruitment message. When a volunteer authorizes ResearchMatch to release their information, contact can then be made by the researcher.

OCT will be adding information for researchers on how to complete training and ask for registration on the Division of Research website. There will also be instructions built into the IRB review process for researchers to indicate if they want to partake in this recruitment tool. There have already been 361 volunteers added to our site that are within a 50-mile radius, and we will continue to recruit more to add to our local pool.

The liaison identified for the university to approve access to the ResearchMatch tool is Mikayla Vasquez. All questions can be sent to Mikayla.vasquez@unlv.edu. We anticipate a rollout date to be in the near future with communication being made well before that takes place.