Required Training on the Responsible Conduct of Research (NSF and NIH) and so on.
In response to a mandate in the America COMPETES act, effective January 4, 2010, NSF requires that, at the time of proposal submission to NSF, UMCES’s Authorized Organizational Representative must certify that the UMCES has a plan to provide appropriate training and oversight in the responsible and ethical conduct of research to undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who will be supported by NSF to conduct research. While training plans are not required to be included in the proposal submitted to NSF, UMCES’s plan is subject to review upon request. NIH has enacted a similar policy for all individuals supported through any NIH training, career development award, research education grant, and dissertation research grant.
If an NSF or NIH proposal submitted after January 4, 2010 is awarded, all trainees (undergraduates, graduate students, or postdoctoral researchers) working on the award for any amount of time must receive training in the Responsible Conduct in Research. UMCES strongly encourages that all PIs complete the same RCR training as his/her students and postdoctoral researchers working on the project. Although this latter action is not specifically required by NSF or NIH, the agencies have made it clear that they expect RCR to include a strong mentoring component, so it is important that PIs are familiar with the RCR training that their students and postdoctoral researchers have taken and can discuss it with them.
To meet the requirement for training, UMCES will maintain a membership in the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) web-based training programs. The RCR training is offered in five disciplines: biomedical, social and behavioral science, physical science, humanities and engineering. At the time of registration in the course, new users should associate themselves with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. The course can be found at: http://www.citiprogram.org.
If you have questions regarding this requirement, please contact Barbara Jenkins in the Office of Research Administration and Advancement at 310-689-7115 or bjenkins@umces.edu.
UMCES Training and Oversight Plan
NSF RCR Resources Page
NSF RCR FAQs
NIH Update on RCR: NOT-OD-10-019