Office of Research and Project Administration

We have received questions on whether the NSF requirement applies to undergraduate students supported by NSF grants that are working as laboratory research assistants.  The NSF requirement DOES apply to undergraduates, however, the UR will be offering an alternate (and abbreviated) form of training for these students.   These students will need to be identified to Dean Heinzelman.

Gunta

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced the implementation of the America COMPETES Act provisions for the “training and oversight in responsible and ethical conduct of research” (RCR) for students and postdoctoral research fellows.

Effective for applications submitted on or after January 4, 2010, NSF will require the proposing institution’s authorized organizational representative (AOR)  to certify that the institution has a plan to provide appropriate training and oversight for students (undergraduate and graduate) and post-doctoral fellows who will be supported by NSF to conduct research.  It is anticipated that this requirement will also be implemented in new awards after the January 4, 2010 date.  

Plans are not to be submitted with the proposals.  However, training plans are subject to review on request and institutions will be required to verify that the students and fellows have received the required training. 

In order to adhere to this new requirement, the University of Rochester will be holding a NSF RCR training session on Tuesday, January 12, 2010, from 9:00- 3:00 in the UR Interfaith Chapel.  The session is being organized by Wendi Heinzelman, Dean of Graduate Studies, Arts, Sciences and Engineering. Topics will include Research Misconduct and Plagiarism, Responsible Authorship, Intellectual Property, Copyright and Conflict of Interest.  For those students and fellows involved with research with human subjects and/or animals, additional training may be required.  Those students and fellows supported by NSF grants that have taken or are enrolled in the NIH ethics training offered by the Med Center do NOT need to register for the NSF RCR session.

Additional information will be sent closer to the January training date; however, NSF investigators planning to submit new proposals or anticipating awards after January 4, 2009 should require NSF-supported students and fellow to attend the training session.  Please contact Wendi Heinzelman (wheinzel@ece.rochester.edu) to register or if you have any questions on this requirement.

Gunta

Gunta  J. Liders
Associate VP for Research Administration
University of Rochester
RC Box 270141
Rochester, NY  14627-0140
(585) 275-5373 (phone)
(585) 275-9492 (fax)
gunta.liders@rochester.edu