Sponsor Requirements

USDA - National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA)

In accordance with sections 2, 3, and 8 of 2 CFR Part 422, institutions conducting USDA-funded extramural research must foster an atmosphere conducive to research integrity, bear primary responsibility for preventing and detecting research misconduct, as well as maintaining, effectively communicating, and training their personnel on relevant policies and procedures.

The National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) requires all personnel (including program directors, faculty, undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and any staff) engaged in its funded research projects (including capacity grants) to receive appropriate training in the responsible and ethical conduct of research (RECR). This training is essential for maintaining research integrity and ensuring compliance with the NIFA Grant Agreement Terms and Conditions.

By accepting a NIFA award, the grantee assures the institution will comply with the above requirements. Award recipients shall, upon request, make available to NIFA the policies, procedures, and documentation to support the conduct of the training.

UMass Dartmouth Plan for Meeting the NIFA RECR Requirement

All faculty, principal investigators, co-principal investigators, graduate students, undergraduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and staff participating in a research project funded by a NIFA grant awarded to UMass Dartmouth directly or as a subrecipient are required to complete the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR)  training offered on-line through the CITI Program.

How can the training requirement be met?

The CITI Program RCR course offered online covers all essential RECR topics and must be completed within 30 days of appointment to the NIFA-funded project. See "CITI Training" for more information and enrollment instructions.

Additional Details

  • The Office of Research Administration will send notifications to Principal Investigators (PIs) once an NIFA award is made, reminding them of the RECR training requirements
  • PIs are responsible for notifying engaged personnel to complete the required RECR training and ensuring to maintain completion records (CITI RCR Certificate of Completion). PIs must also demonstrate necessary steps have been taken to inform engaged personnel participating in NIFA-funded research of the RECR requirement, which can be presented in the event of an audit or NIFA request for verification of compliance.
  • The Office of Institutional Ethics & Compliance will email reminders to personnel on an NIFA award who have not completed RECR Training.

RCR Training Exceptions

If the PI believes a NIFA-funded individual does not meet the RECR requirements (i.e: the individual is not conducting or participating in the research, conference, travel, workshop, or symposium-specific award), they may request the RCR requirement is removed. In such cases, the PI must email Stephanie Pena at spena4@umassd.edu.

Resources

National Institute of Health (NIH)

The NIH defines responsible conduct of research as the practice of scientific investigation with integrity involving awareness and application of established professional norms and ethical principles in the performance of all activities related to scientific research. 

Under NIH policy, all trainees, fellows, participants, and scholars receiving support through any NIH-funded programs supporting research training, career development award (individual or institutional), research education grant, or dissertation research grant must receive instruction in responsible conduct of research. This includes the following programs:  D43, D71, F05, F30, F31, F32, F33, F34, F37, F38, K01, K02, K05, K07, K08, K12, K18, K22, K23, K24, K25, K26, K30, K99/R00, KL1, KL2, R25, R36, T15, T32, T34, T35, T36, T37, T90/R90, TL1, TU2, and U2R.   The policy also applies to any other NIH-funded programs supporting research training, career development, or research education that require instruction in responsible conduct of research as stated in the relevant funding opportunity announcements.

In late 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Research Integrity (ORI) gathered feedback from the research community about best practices, challenges, and needs related to teaching RCR and promoting research integrity. As a result, NIH issued revised guidance on instructional format, frequency and timing, and subject matter of RCR training (NOT-OD-22-055). Discussion-based instruction in the responsible conduct of research remains a key feature of RCR training and should include substantive face-to-face interaction among participants and faculty.

How can the training requirement be met?

  • Substantial face-to-face discussions among the participating trainees/fellows/scholars/participants; a combination of didactic and small-group discussions (e.g. case studies); and participation of research training faculty members in instruction in responsible conduct of research are highly encouraged. Eight (8) hours of instruction is required.  For information see NIH OD-22-055, regarding instructional format, frequency and timing, and subject matter which must include the following:
    • Responsible Authorship/Publication Plagiarism.
    • Conflicts of Interest (personal, professional, and financial) and Conflict of Commitment (allocation of time, effort, or other research resources). 
    • Collaborative Research, including collaborations with industry, investigators, and institutions in other countries. 
    • Ethical Data Management: Acquisition, Analysis/Interpretation, Confidentiality, Ownership, Management, Sharing, and Use of Data; Laboratory Tools for analyzing data, and creating or working with digital images; Record keeping Practices, including electronic laboratory notebooks.
    • Mentor/mentee responsibilities and relationships; 
    • Policies on safe laboratory practices research involving human subjects, live vertebrate animal subjects, and biohazards.
    • Peer review, including the responsibility for maintaining confidentiality and security in peer review.
    • Research misconduct and policies for handling misconduct.
    • Safe research environments which promote inclusion and are free of sexual, racial, ethnic, disability, and other forms of discriminatory harassment.
    • Contemporary ethical issues in biomedical research, and the environmental and societal impacts of scientific research.
  • Online CITI training can only be used to supplement the 8 hours.
  • The Dilemma Game App is an open resource developed by Erasmus University Rotterdam is designed to help facilitate open in-person research integrity discussions and includes individual, small group, and lecture modes. 

Resources

National Science Foundation (NSF)

The National Science Foundation (NSF), by mandate of the United States Congress in the America Competes Act, Section 7009, and the CHIPS + Science Act, section 10337, requires all faculty, senior personnel, postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate students supported by NSF funding to receive training in the responsible and ethical conduct of research (RECR).

UMass Dartmouth Plan for Meeting the NSF RECR Requirement

All faculty, senior personnel, postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate students supported by NSF grant awarded to UMass Dartmouth directly or as a subrecipient are required to complete the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR)  training offered online through the CITI Program.

How can the training requirement be met?

The CITI Program RCR course offered online covers all essential RECR topics and must be completed within 30 days of appointment to the NSF-funded project. See "CITI Training" for more information and enrollment instructions.

Additional Details

  • The Office of Research Administration will send notifications to Principal Investigators (PIs) once an NSF award is made, reminding them of the RECR training requirements
  • PIs are responsible for notifying engaged personnel to complete the required RECR training and ensuring to maintain completion records (CITI RCR Certificate of Completion). PIs must also demonstrate necessary steps have been taken to inform engaged personnel participating in NSF-funded research of the RECR requirement, which can be presented in the event of an audit or NSF request for verification of compliance.
  • The Office of Institutional Ethics & Compliance will email reminders to personnel on an NSF award who have not completed RECR Training. 

Resources