About CLEAR Review Board

Institutional Review Boards were designed to protect research participants, but too often they function primarily to protect institutions.

Research shapes the policies, programs, and decisions that affect our daily lives. Yet the authority to decide whether research is ethical is controlled by university and corporate review boards whose primary concern is institutional liability. The communities most affected by research rarely have a meaningful voice in how studies are reviewed, approved, or conducted. CLEAR Review Board was created to change that.

Our goal is simple: to make independent research oversight truly independent, affordable, and grounded in the communities affected by the research.

CLEAR (Community-Led Ethics & Research) Review Board is launching its first board focused on research involving incarcerated and formerly incarcerated populations. Our model brings community voices directly into the review process to strengthen transparency, accountability, and trust in research involving vulnerable participants.

Your support will help launch the first operational CLEAR Review Board by funding:

• recruitment and training of community reviewers
• governance and ethical review procedures
• technology infrastructure for protocol submission and review
• pilot ethical reviews of research involving incarcerated populations

Together, we can build a system where research ethics are led by communities, not corporations.

Become a Founding Supporter

CLEAR Review Board is launching its first operational board. Early supporters are helping build a new model of community-led research ethics from the ground up.

Your support today helps establish the first board and begin reviewing research projects.

About the Founder

Jonathan Morgan, MBA, MSCJ is a criminal justice researcher, PhD student at the University of Cincinnati, and nonprofit executive. His work focuses on public opinion and policy, prison reentry, and restorative justice. Through his research and work with nonprofit organizations, he has seen firsthand how communities most affected by research are often excluded from the systems meant to oversee it.

His experience in higher education, public service, and nonprofit leadership informed the creation of the CLEAR Review Board, a new model designed to shift ethical oversight away from institutions and toward the communities whose lives and experiences are being studied.

The Future of Ethical Research Starts Here

Help launch the first independent, community-led research ethics review board

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Team Members