NIH Training

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) require that recipients of the following award types complete a research ethics training requirement:

  • Institutional Research Training Grants (T series)
  • Individual Fellowship Awards (F series)
  • Career Development Awards (K series)
  • Research Education Grants (R25, R36)
  • Dissertation Research Grants (R36)
  • Certain other programs with a training requirement (D series, U series, etc.)

Full list of Applicable Awards: 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
 

Training Requirements

Part A: Online RCR Core Course

Awardees must complete the University’s basic RCR Core Course in the RCR Core Training. This can be completed online through the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI).

Part B: In-Person Instruction

In addition to RCR Core Training, awardees must have: 

  • 8-hours of in-person ethics training
  • Frequency: At least once every 4 years or at every career stage (e.g. moving from graduate student to postdoc, or postdoc to faculty)

Applicants are required to provide detailed descriptions of these activities as part of their applications for funding and reports.
 

Guidance on Writing Training Descriptions

When applying for NIH funding or submitting reports, you must provide a detailed description of your RCR training, including a description of the 8-hours of in-person instruction you have participated in or will participate in to meet this requirement.

Suggested wording for UMN applicants:

All members of the University of Minnesota community are expected to exemplify the highest standards of integrity and ethics. Per Board of Regents policy: Submitting and Accepting Sponsored Projects” Subd. 2(c) “…Principal Investigators (PI) must complete training required by Sponsor and the University”. Per Administrative Policy: Education in the Responsible Conduct of Sponsored Research and Grants Management  “Faculty, staff, and students who serve in various capacities on research and scholarship projects are required to complete training that is appropriate for the role they will serve on the project and meets sponsor regulations. Sponsor regulations, University policies, and the supervisors of staff and students will determine the appropriate level of training”.  The University of Minnesota requires all individuals supported by NIH training related funding to take Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Core training.

The RCR Core Training is an online course that includes the following:

 

  • Introduction: RCR core principles, professional and fiscal responsibilities, dealing with research misconduct, mentoring, and healthy research environments
  • Planning: research with human participants, conflicts of interest and conflicts of commitment, workplace safety
  • Conducting: data collection, sharing and interpretation
  • Reporting: plagiarism, authorship, peer review
  • Responsibility to the public and society
  • Export Controls and Economic Sanctions
  • Technology Commercialization 

Per NIH RCR training related requirements, in addition to the RCR Core Training, I have had or will participate in the following in-person training (prior to the end of the project year):

[Insert information on how you have met or will meet your in-person training requirements. Please include the following information.]

 

  • format (e.g. face-to-face, video conferencing), 
  • subject matter (list the specific topics covered, e.g. authorship, data management, etc.), 
  • duration of training (e.g. 8-hours of classroom instruction), and 
  • date it was completed (Month, Year). 
  • Note: you may use training that occurred outside of the award period; however, RCR training must be renewed every four years. If your last training was more than four years ago, you must include your specific plan for completing the 8-hour RCR refresher.