Requirements for Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Education

 
In response to a mandate in the America COMPETES act, effective January 4, 2010, NSF requires that, at the time of proposal submission to NSF, Lehigh’s Authorized Organizational Representative must certify that the Lehigh has a plan to provide appropriate training and oversight in the responsible and ethical conduct of research to undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers who will be supported by NSF to conduct research. While training plans are not required to be included in the proposal submitted to NSF, Lehigh’s plan is subject to review upon request.  NIH has enacted a similar policy for all individuals supported through any NIH training, career development award, research education grant, and dissertation research grant.

If an NSF or NIH proposal submitted after January 4, 2010 is awarded, all trainees (undergraduates, graduate students, or postdoctoral researchers) working on the award for any amount of time must receive training in the Responsible Conduct in Research.  Lehigh’s plan requires that all PI’s complete the same RCR training as his/her students and postdoctoral researchers working on the project.  Although this latter action is not specifically required by NSF or NIH, the agencies have made it clear that they expect RCR to include a strong mentoring component, so it is important that PI’s are familiar with the RCR training that their students and postdoctoral researchers have taken and can discuss it with them.

To meet the requirement for training, Lehigh will maintain a membership in the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) web-based training programs.  The RCR training is offered in five disciplines: biomedical, social and behavioral science, physical science, humanities and engineering.  At the time of registration in the course, new users should associate themselves with Lehigh University. The course can be found at:  http://www.citiprogram.org.

If you have questions regarding this requirement, you may contact your Contract and Grant Specialist in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.

• Lehigh University's Responsible Conduct of Research Training Plan
• NIH Update on RCR: NOT-OD-10-019
• NSF RCR Resources Page
• NSF RCR FAQs