Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research Education Requirement for USDA-NIFA

The United States Department of Agriculture- National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) responsible and ethical conduct of research ethics training requirements state that training must, at a minimum, include authorship, plagiarism, data and research integration, and reporting misconduct. The University of Minnesota requires all personnel to have foundational training in authorship, collaborative research, conflicts of interest and commitment, data management, financial responsibility in sponsored projects, mentoring/mentorship, peer review, plagiarism, research misconduct, and export controls and economic sanctions.

All University personnel funded through USDA-NIFA must either complete the RCR Core curriculum through CITI Program (recommended by USDA-NIFA), or have completed a course that includes the following topics: authorship and plagiarism, data and research integration, and reporting misconduct (see: Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research). This must have been completed within the last two years. The RCR Core Curriculum offered by the University of Minnesota through CITI Program includes the following topics:

• Introduction to RCR: overview of responsible conduct of research
• Authorship
• Collaborative Research
• Conflicts of Interest and Commitment
• Data Management
• Financial Responsibility
• Mentoring
• Peer Review
• Plagiarism
• Research Misconduct
• Export Controls and Economic Sanctions
• Financial Responsibility & Other Research Areas
• Technology and Commercialization at the University of Minnesota.

Oversight and tracking of the training is a responsibility shared by the principal investigator (PI) and the University, to be coordinated by the Office of the Research and Innovation Office (RIO) and the Research Integrity and Compliance (RIC). If PIs and their academic units do not utilize the RCR Core Curriculum through CITI Program, their course must be approved by the RIC Director to include the listed content above. PIs are responsible for identifying current courses and activities that meet the requirement and encourage the development of new courses and activities. RIO will provide infrastructure to identify and notify students who need the training and maintain completion records.

To submit a request for course approval or fulfillment of the training requirement outside of completing the CITI Course, please use the NSF and USDA-NIFA Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research Training Requirement Form.

A new list of courses will be posted upon reviewing and approving prior courses and reviewing any new submissions, and will be regularly updated.

Notification

Reports will be generated to identify the students, postdocs and staff who are being paid from these sponsored projects, based on University payroll records for the appropriate employee categories. An automated email will be sent to the individuals who have not yet completed the required training, based on this report. A copy of the email will also be sent to the PI on the project and to the Resource Responsibility Center (RRC) Manager assigned to the unit. The email will contain information about the requirement, the options and deadline for completing it, and the consequences for failure to do so.

Oversight and tracking of requirement

Oversight and tracking of this responsible and ethical conduct of research training requirement is a responsibility shared between PIs, departments, and RIO/RIC. Completion of for-credit courses and the CITI RCR curriculum will be tracked electronically. If students complete non-credit seminars or activities, the coordinating department or program must submit a list of participants to RIC, or the individual student must submit a Completion Form to RIC. All data entry of completed courses or activities is done by RIC staff.

Failure to complete training

If the requirement has not been met at the 30-day deadline, a final reminder email will be sent to the student, PI, RRC Manager, and to the Associate Dean for Research or equivalent for the collegiate unit. If the training is not completed after this final reminder, RIC will remove the individual's salary and fringe benefits charged to the project to a departmental non-sponsored default account until the requirement has been met.