Before any person can participate in any wet research lab activity, their overseeing principal investigator (PI) must ensure the following procedure is completed if they are a volunteer.  

• Notification of the volunteer wanting to work in the lab submitted with the following information:
  • the volunteer's email address (linkblue account if applicable)
  • name
  • date of birth
  • start date and expected end date
  • status (e.g. student from <location>, visiting scientist from <location>, etc)

• Emergency Contact Form completed and submitted

• University of Kentucky Assumption of Risk and Waiver of Liability Form completed, signed by all applicable parties, and submitted

• Research Volunteer Agreement completed/signed and submitted

• All Training Requirements completed
  • including Lab Specific Training provided by the PI
  • additional training may be required depending on the type of work being performed in the lab, the PI should consult with the training checklist to ensure adequate university training has been completed.
  • All training records should be kept in the laboratory safety manual (print a hardcopy of the online class transcript here)

• If volunteer is under the age of 18:
  • Minors in Research Policy completed (documents should be submitted directly to UK EHS)
  • Minors on campus instructions completed (all documents here must be submitted to UK Risk Management) <--for camps or groups of students
    • for more information on the above, please read UK AR 6:12

All items above except for the Minors in Research Policy (please follow the EHS process on how to submit that at the link above) must be submitted via a hiring authorization form (https://resources.as.uky.edu/hiring-authorization-form), whether the individual is paid or unpaid, prior to the volunteer gaining access and/or performing work in the research lab. The faculty member or a Department Manager should submit these documents to the authorization form and not the volunteer. The research group should keep the originals for their files and submit an electronic copy to their department.

Note: Undergraduate students working in a lab to receive course credit (e.g., CHE395, etc.) do not have to complete volunteer paperwork.  If the undergraduate continues work over a break (e.g., summer, etc.) and/or continues into a semester that they are not receiving course credit for that wet research work, then the volunteer process above must be completed before they are allowed to continue in the lab.