NIH Grants

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) requires a minimum of eight hours of face-to-face training every 4 years. NIH clarified that some interactive discussions may be achieved electronically through video conferencing, however video conferencing may not be the sole instruction method to meet the RECR requirement. The training requirement applies to trainees, fellows, participants, and scholars supported by certain types of D, F, K, R,T and U awards. The training requirement applies to 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. This 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.

The NIH recommends the topics below for comprehensive research ethics training:

• Conflict of interest-personal, professional, and financial-and conflict of commitment, in allocating time, effort, or other research resources
• Policies regarding human subjects; live vertebrate animal use in research and safe laboratory practices
• Mentor/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 investigators and institutions in other countries. Peer review, including the responsibility for maintaining confidentiality and security in peer review
• Data acquisition and analysis; laboratory tools; management, sharing and ownership data acquisition and 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
• 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

The University of Wisconsin-Madison offers face-to-face classes that UW Oshkosh researchers may attend to fulfill the face-to-face training requirement. UW Oshkosh researchers may register as a special student here: https://acsss.wisc.edu/special-student-types/ and take one of the approved courses offered (listed here: https://kb.wisc.edu/gsadminkb/page.php?id=33279#RCR. Questions may be directed to the Director of RCR Education at UW-Madison.

NSF and USDA-NIFA Grants

Interactive online tutorials created by CITI Program (http://citiprogram.org/) will be made available to all identified individuals requiring training. The course content is tailored to the discipline.  The following Responsible and Ethical Conduct in Research Courses are available: RECR for Life Sciences, RECR for Social and Behavioral Science, RECR for Physical Science, or RECR for Arts and Humanities. Instructions for accessing the online CITI Program training  RCR CITI Training Instructions.

The modules will be completed sequentially, though they do not need to be completed in one sitting. The amount of time to complete the interactive online tutorials is estimated to be between one and three hours. Individuals must complete the online RCR course either prior to or in the early weeks of the research work, and prior to receiving compensation. A refresher RCR course is not required, however it is available through CITI Program.

Interactive online tutorials overview researchers’ rights and obligations; collaboration, communication, and grants management; and intellectual property. More specifically, they address core elements of:

• Data Acquisition & Management
• Mentoring & Trainee responsibilities
• Research Misconduct
• Peer Review
• Authorship
• Collaborative Research
• Conflicts of Interest

The interactive online tutorials have a built-in system for verification. During registration, individuals provide their email address and indicate an affiliation with UW Oshkosh. Upon tutorial completion, a completion report is kept in the online system, and a copy is emailed to the user.  Please send a copy of the completion report to the Office of Sponsored Programs at OSP@uwosh.edu to verify training completion.

• Human Subjects Training (IRB)
  Prior to receiving IRB approval, Principal Investigators and their research staff must complete training in human research ethics. Training is conducted through CITI Program. Additional information on human subjects research training is located here: https://www.uwosh.edu/sponsoredprograms/irb/training/.
• Animal Welfare Training (IACUC)
  Prior to receiving IACUC approval, Principal Investigators (PI) and their research staff are required to complete appropriate training in animal care and use. The training path required is based on the user’s role and type of research. Animal Care and Use Certification involves in-person training as well as online training conducted through CITI Program. Additional information on animal care and use training is located here: https://www.uwosh.edu/sponsoredprograms/iacuc/training/.

• Biological Safety Training
  Prior to receiving IBC approval, Principal Investigators (PI) and their research staff are required to complete biosafety training for research or teaching experiments involving hazardous biological materials, recombinant DNA or synthetic nucleic acids, or infectious human materials. Training is also required for faculty or staff that will be shipping regulated biological materials. Additional information on biosafety training is located here: https://www.uwosh.edu/sponsoredprograms/ibc/training/.