NSF Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research for Senior Personnel

Overview

The National Science Foundation (NSF) requires all faculty and other senior personnel to complete training in the Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research (RECR, also called RCR). This guidance can be found in Chapter IX, Section B of the PAPPG 24-1. Previously, only students and postdoctoral researchers were required to complete this training.

Vanderbilt faculty and senior personnel who are impacted by this new policy will be contacted by Research Integrity & Compliance with instructions for completing the required online RECR training. Students and postdocs will continue to fulfill the requirement via established training provided by the Graduate School and their schools/departments.

FAQs

  • Who is impacted?

    If you are a faculty member or senior personnel receiving salary support to conduct research on an NSF award, you will need to complete training in the responsible conduct of research.

  • How to comply?

    If your NSF proposal is awarded, Research Integrity and Compliance (RIC) will assign CITI training for RCR. This training is entitled, “RCR Training for NSF Senior Personnel” and includes two modules – one on Mentoring and one on Research Misconduct. The training should take between 1-2 hours to complete. After you complete the modules, you have completed your mandatory training! The RIC office will work with the Sponsored Programs Administration to ensure that your award is set up after the training is complete.

  • Can the training be completed in advance?

    Yes! Research Integrity and Compliance encourages you to complete the training in advance of any NSF award. If you have a CITI account, you can add the course “RCR Training for NSF Senior Personnel” to your account and complete it at your leisure. If you have trouble adding this to your account, please contact the ric@vanderbilt.edu for assistance.

  • What other trainings should I anticipate in the future?

    As part of NSPM-33 institutions will need to certify that they have a research security program. It is expected that research security trainings will be embedded in RECR instruction. We are following these developments closely, waiting for more guidance from our federal sponsors, and coordinating with the Schools and Colleges to streamline compliance. For the latest update on these requirements, please see the recent Guidelines for Research Security Programs from the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).

  • How often will I need to complete this training?

    At the moment, this training is only required once.

  • I still have questions. Where can I go to find more information?

    Please email ric@vanderbilt.edu with any questions. Research Integrity and Compliance is happy to assist with any compliance questions.