Sponsor Specific Training Requirements

Federal agencies require that individuals applying for and conducting sponsored research complete ethics and security training.

Individuals affected include UIS-affiliated faculty, staff, and students who are appointed on funds, or who are involved in published research or scholarly activities that acknowledge funds from sponsor agencies requiring research training.

National Science Foundation (NSF)

NSF "requires research security training certifications from proposers and individuals identified as senior/key personnel by the proposer. Proposers may utilize any training that addresses cybersecurity, international collaboration, foreign interference, and rules for proper use of funds, disclosure, conflict of commitment, and conflict of interest" (Important Notice No. 149, 24 November 2025). Each individual identified as a senior/key person must certify (via SciENcv) that they have completed research security training that meets the requirements specified within 12 months prior to proposal submission.

NSF, in partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of Defense (DOD), have provided four online research security training (RST) modules as a resource to awardee organizations. Subsequently, the SECURE Center developed an updated and condensed version of the four modules. The condensed RST module is designed to meet the government-wide RST requirement in Section 10634 of the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 (42 U.S.C. § 19234).

Separately, the proposal submission official (AOR) is required to complete a certification that affected individuals have completed training in the Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research (RECR) prior to submission. UIS recommends that RECR trainings are completed through the CITI Program. In addition to the SECURE Center's condensed RST module, affected individuals should complete the "Responsible Conduct of Research" CITI course that most closely aligns with their research (Social Behavioral, Biomedical, Physical Science, Humanities), and the "Mentoring and Healthy Research Environments" course.

Additional training administered by the Office of Research & Sponsored Programs (ORSP) and colleges and departments is encouraged, with affected individuals maintaining logs of their attendance. ORSP will request certificates of completion and/or attendance logs before certifying and submitting proposals to NSF.

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Prior to submitting an NIH grant proposal, senior/key personnel must receive training on disclosing all research activities, domestic and foreign affiliations, and financial resources. The SECURE Center's condensed RST module satisfies those requirements, with additional training on UIS specific conflict of commitment and interest disclosure processes being highly encouraged.

For opportunities with deadlines on or after May 25, 2026, each individual identified as a senior/key person must certify (via SciENcv) that they have completed research security training within 12 months prior to proposal submission.

If selected for funding: During the project period of NIH funded research, Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) instruction must occur at every stage of a researcher’s career (undergraduate, post-baccalaureate, predoctoral, postdoctoral, faculty) and at a frequency of no less than once every four years. Though SECURE Center and CITI modules are allowable, training should be substantially face-to-face, with at least 8 "contact hours" provided by ORSP or the individual's college or unit. Video conferencing can satisfy the contact requirements if it is "used in a way that fosters discussion, active learning, engagement, and interaction." These trainings must be documented either by completion certificates or attendance logs that include dates, times, topics, and attendees.

Affected individuals must meet NIH training content requirements. Required subject matter includes:

Conflict of interest - personal, professional, and financial - including conflicts of commitment in allocating time, effort, or other research resources.
Policies regarding human subjects, live vertebrate animal subjects in research, and safe laboratory practices.
Mentor and mentee responsibilities and relationships.
Safe research environments, e.g., those that promote inclusion and are free of sexual, racial, ethnic, disability and other forms of discriminatory harassment.
Collaborative research including collaborations with industry and investigators and institutions in other countries.
Peer review, including the responsibility for maintaining confidentiality and security in peer review.
Data acquisition; analysis; laboratory tools (e.g., tools for analyzing data and creating or working with digital images); recordkeeping practices (including methods such as electronic laboratory notebooks); management; sharing; and ownership.
Secure and ethical data use; data confidentiality, management, sharing and ownership.
Research misconduct and policies for handling misconduct.
Responsible authorship and publication.
The scientist as a responsible member of society, contemporary ethical issues in biomedical research, and the environmental and societal impacts of scientific research.