The National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the United States Department of Agriculture - National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) have issued training requirements in Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) for award recipients. RIC will reach out by email to the hires under these awards with instructions, but it is ultimately the Principal Investigator of an award who is responsible for ensuring that they and their students and staff complete the required training. Failure to complete training within 60 days (excluding in-person training) will lead to loss of funding.
Training Requirements by Agency
| NIH | NSF | USDA-NIFA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| PI | CITI | CITI | |
| Staff | CITI | CITI | |
| Postdoc | In-person, CITI | CITI | CITI |
| Graduate Student | In-person, CITI | CITI | CITI |
| Undergraduate | CITI | CITI | CITI |
CITI Responsible Conduct of Research Training
The training requirements for most agencies/personnel can be fulfilled by completing the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Curriculum via the CITI website. Completion of any other CITI training module (such as Social & Behavioral Research Module) does NOT fulfill the RCR training requirement. You must pass each RCR training module with a score of 80% or higher. Upon completion, RIC will automatically receive an email with your certification of completion for their records.
Instructions on registering and adding a course to CITI are provided below.
To register for CITI as a new user:
- Go to the CITI website.
- Click “Register” in the upper right corner of the page.
- Select “Utah State University” as your organizational affiliation.
- Continue to step 7 on the CITI website.
- Select Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Curriculum near the bottom of the list, then go to the next page.
- Select the focus area you want to complete – you only need to complete 1 – and click next.
- Click “Finalize Registration.”
If you are already registered to CITI, add the RCR course:
- Go to the CITI website and log in.
- Under “Main Menu/My Courses” scroll down to the bottom.
- Under “My Learner Tools for Utah State University” click “Add a Course.”
- Select Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Curriculum and click next.
- Select the focus area you want to complete – you only need to complete 1 – and click next.
- You should now be enrolled in that course.
In-Person RCR Workshop
RIC hosts an RCR Workshop series each semester (Spring and Fall). The workshop uses an ethical decisions-based approach and is comprised of a Canvas module and in-person sessions. The Canvas module provides background information on ethical decision making. The four 2-hour in-person sessions focus on case studies that allow students to apply the knowledge learned in the Canvas module to real-world situations. In-person sessions are scheduled at the beginning of each semester.
While the RCR Workshop was developed to fulfill NIH mandated training requirements, it is open to anyone interested in learning about and applying ethical decision making in a research environment.
Sign-up for an upcoming workshop
The Workshop fulfills the training requirements for all NIH funded graduate students and postdocs. RIC will contact anyone required to complete the RCR Workshop upon hire under an NIH grant. Students who anticipate being supported by NIH funds are encouraged to sign up for the Workshop early in their program.
If the new hire has previously completed the required 8 hours of in-person training within the last 4 years, then they will NOT need to complete the workshop at USU.
For more information about the RCR Workshop, please contact Research Integrity and Compliance.