Multisite clinical trials are a powerful way to drive the discovery of new therapies, but ensuring that the health and privacy of study participants are protected across multiple Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) has slowed things down in the past. Today, the NIH reached a major milestone: all of their Clinical and Translational Science Awards program sites have agreed to a new authorization agreement, SMART IRB. The agreement – whose acronym stands for Streamlined, Multisite, Accelerated Resources for Trials IRB – "will enable all participating study sites to rely on the ethics review of one IRB for each study, making it possible to initiate multisite studies within weeks instead of months. For patients waiting to enroll in a study, this could make a life-saving difference." Among the signatories on the agreement is Consortium member the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI).