Training Resources
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COS Pivot Training
COS Pivot identifies funding information related to research, collaborative activities and curriculum development, among others. Funding opportunities can be searched by sponsor, amount, deadline, eligibility of applicant, funding type and area of interest. Training on how to leverage COS Pivot is handled through UD Library.
NIH Proposal Academy
The NIH Proposal Academy is a year-long proposal preparation program to assist applicants to become successful NIH researchers. The program includes mentoring, grant writing and graphics assistance, and feedback and review throughout the program.
NSF Career Proposal Academy
The NSF Career Proposal Academy is a year-long proposal preparation program to assist applicants to become successful in the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program. It includes an overview of the application process, available UD resources and discussions with past winners and mentors.
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UD Research Orientation
The Research Office hosts an annual introduction to conducting research at UD. Members from the Research Office, campus resources and faculty panelists provide an overview of UD’s research structure and how to launch a successful research program. This year’s orientation was held on October 23, 2020 via Zoom.
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GUR Exchange
PRESENTER: Shannon Robson & Senate Research Committee
The GUR seed grant program is designed to assist all full-time faculty at UD (especially early-career faculty members) with research, scholarly or creative projects. The GUR Exchange, presented by the Research Office and the Faculty Senate Research Committee, will feature an invited panel of former recipients to provide guidance on crafting a competitive GUR proposal and a reviewer who will share an example proposal. Faculty interested in applying are strongly encouraged to attend the Exchange.
UDRF Overview
PRESENTER: Research Development and past participants
The UDRF seed grant program is designed to assist untenured, tenure-track faculty with high-quality scientific research. All faculty interested in applying are strongly encouraged to attend the informational webinar. The Research Development team, along with former participants will provide guidance on crafting a competitive proposal during the virtual event.
UDRF OVERVIEW WORKSHOP PRESENTATION
UD Research Foundation – Strategic Initiatives Overview
Established in 2008, the University of Delaware Research Foundation Strategic Initiatives (UDRF-SI) program supports innovative, collaborative, scientific research proposals with potential for high impact that align with the University’s strategic priorities. An UDRF-SI proposal must involve a collaboration between an untenured, tenure-track faculty member, and a senior faculty member, who serves as both a mentor and a research collaborator.
Please note that submission and post-award processes have changed. Specifically, no information will need to be entered into PeopleSoft at the proposal submission time. Proposals selected for funding will be given detailed instruction at award time. More information, including a new proposal template can be found on UD Research’s Internal Grant webpage.
Effort Certification Training
UD’s research enterprise depends on funding from federal and state agencies, private foundations, organizations and industry. The University’s electronic Effort Certification Process (ECP) is the principal means of verifying that salaries and wages charged to, or contributed to, a sponsored project are fulfilled in a manner consistent with the award documentation and compliant with the federal regulations for which the University is held accountable.
If you need assistance in identifying your effort administrator, please see the Department Administrator Directory within our Staff Directory. To learn more about administering the effort certification process in your department, check out the training opportunities below.
ConnectingU and Effort Certification
ConnectingU offers two courses to help familiarize yourself with the Effort process.
- Introduction to Effort Administration – This course provides basic training for new or inexperienced effort administrators.
- The Math Behind Effort Reporting – This course helps learners calculate effort, decide what percent to enter in LAM, and how to figure out if effort commitments were met.
Effort Certification Process
It is imperative that anyone administering the effort system understand the system and how it is used. Effort Certification procedures are outlined in the following document: Effort Certification Procedures.
Viewing of the Effort Training video is mandatory for anyone logging in to the online Effort Certification System.
The training sessions below are available to use in-house or for the Research Office to present to faculty or staff. Two training sessions are available to employees who will either certify or administer the Effort Certification Process for a given department:
The following three-part series WITH audio:
- Effort Overview Presentation – Part I
- Effort Overview Presentation – Part II
- Effort Overview Presentation – Part III
The following three-part series WITHOUT audio:
- Effort Overview Presentation – Part I
- Effort Overview Presentation – Part II
- Effort Overview Presentation – Part III
Administrative Detail Training
PowerPoint: Sponsored Effort Nuts and Bolts
To join the effort-administrators email group, please follow the steps below:
- Go to the Effort Administrators Google Group.
- Click on the blue Sign in button (top right).
- Sign in with your UD account (if you have a personal google email, that will be one of the choices, you have to choose the UD email account).
- You will see the message: You must be a member of this group to view and participate in it.
- Click on the link: Apply for membership.
- On the next window click on the link: Join group.
ConnectingU Courses
ONLINE LEARNING MODULES
IN-PERSON WORKSHOPS
Credit Card Administration
Credit Card Administration
This online training module provides an overview of UD credit card practices. It is mandatory for any future card administrators.
UD Financials
UD Financial Fundamentals: This four-part series covers a high-level financial overview of UD, the accounting structure within UD Financials, transactions and their sources and financial reporting.
- Financial Overview — This course is the first of a four-part series called UD Financial Fundamentals. Part 1 provides a high level financial overview of the University of Delaware.
- Financials System — This course is the 2nd of a four-part series called UD Financial Fundamentals. Part 2 includes information about the accounting structure within the UD Financials System.
- Financial Transactions and Sources — This course is the 3rd of a four-part series called UD Financial Fundamentals.Part 3 delves into details about financial transactions and their sources.
- Financial Reporting and Resources — This course is the 4th of a four-part series called UD Financial Fundamentals. Part 4 contains information about financial reporting and additional financial resources.
UDataGlance
- UDataGlance Workshop — This course is an overview of the UDataGlance’s Financial Summary tab. Included are tips on how to get the most out of your transaction data.
UD as a Sponsor
UD as a Sponsor
UD As A Sponsor
This online class highlights internal funding opportunities, also known as pilot grant opportunities, that are available to early career faculty members. The department administrators play an important role in supporting the proposal process for these submissions. This course reviews what funding opportunities are available and why they are important.
View the Training Here
NIH Salary Cap Calculator
In order to strengthen compliance with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Salary Cap, the Research Office has developed a tool to clarify and simplify the salary cap calculation. This tool is intended for use by both department administrators and the Research Office Post Award team to monitor cap compliance during the life of the project and close out at the end of the project. Final determination of salary JVs to move direct salary to cost share in the case of cap overage will be made by the Research Office using the calculator in coordination with the department.
OVERVIEW
The NIH Salary Cap is a federally-mandated limitation placed on the 12-month salary rate that can be directly charged to NIH-sponsored grants
• It is not a limitation on how much a PI can be paid by the university
– It is a limitation on the salary for an individual directly charged to the NIH in proportion to that individual’s institutional base salary (IBS)
• The cap is applicable to subawards and is NOT applicable to consultants
• The cap is calculated on an annual basis, even if salary is charged only in one or two months of the project period
Instructions (PDF)
NIH Salary Cap Calculator (Excel)
Animal Subjects
The University of Delaware is committed to the humane care and use of animals in research and teaching. Before entry is allowed into the Animal Facility, the appropriate training must be completed.
Federal regulations require that all use of non-human vertebrate animals in research, teaching and testing follow established guidelines and be reviewed and approved by an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), which is constituted according to the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.
Training is required before entry is allowed into the Animal Facility. Training is held the second and fourth Tuesday of every month at 10:30 a.m. Please contact the Facility Manager to schedule a training seminar.
CITI Program Training
All personnel actively engaged in human subjects research must maintain current training by completing the required courses every three (3) years. Training is available, and must be completed, online through the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) Program. Principal Investigators submitting a research proposal for review to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) are responsible for ensuring all researchers to be engaged in human subjects research under his/her supervision hold valid and current training certifications. If researchers have not linked their training certification to their user profile in IRBNet, certifications of training completion for all research team members need to be submitted at the time of the application as a single PDF document.
UD offers CITI training for animals in research, responsible conduct of research and export controls.
How to complete CITI Program Training
To complete online training, users need to register at the CITI Program site and affiliate their profile with the University of Delaware. Several training courses are available under the UD affiliation. Under the “Add a Course” menu researchers must select the appropriate learner group for human subjects protections, depending on the research they will be involved with: Biomedical Focus; Social-Behavioral-Educational Focus or Non-UD Researchers (available to non-UD collaborators). There is no cost or fee associated with the completion of required UD training courses.
Once a learner group is selected, a list of all the required training modules will populate and need to be completed. The program is available online 24/7. Users may stop the training at any time and return to where they left off at their convenience, as many times as needed, until the training is finished.
If a researcher has completed human subjects protections training in CITI Program under a different institution affiliation in the recent past, he or she must log in to CITI program and add their affiliation to UD. Modules previously taken that are still current will be transferred to the UD course and only required modules that have not been completed will need to be done.
A minimum overall passing grade of 85 percent is required to successfully complete the training. Once the training requirement has been fulfilled, a completion report is generated. A researcher may upload his/her training completion report onto his/her www.IRBNet.org user profile. Doing so will link that training record to the investigator profile, where it will automatically be linked to all his/her submissions to the UD IRB.
The completion date will be recorded as the day the last required module(s) was completed and the course was finished. In order to maintain training as current, the course must be completed before the three year expiration window. CITI Program will send an automatic reminder 90 days before the most current completed course will expire.
Important Note
Training in the responsible conduct of research (RCR) and/or good clinical practice (GCP) DO NOT fulfill the basic training requirement (HSP) all UD researchers must comply with to carry out human subjects research.
Conflict of Interest
As defined in the University of Delaware’s Policies and Procedures Manual, a potential conflict of interest occurs when there is a divergence between an individual’s private interests and his or her professional obligations such that an independent observer might reasonably question whether the individual’s professional actions or decisions are influenced by considerations of personal gain, financial or otherwise. A potential conflict of interest depends on the situation, and not on the character or actions of the individual.
Export Control Training
University research is subject to U.S. Export Control laws that protect national security and trade, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), implemented by the U.S. Department of State, and the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) , implemented by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) , which is part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, also is responsible for administering and enforcing economic and trade sanctions against certain nations, entities and individuals.
Export Control training is offered through the CITI Program. To complete online training, please register at the CITI Program site and add the University of Delaware as an institutional affiliation in your account. Select the Export Compliance course by clicking on the “Add a Course” option at the bottom of the Courses page.
Training in Good Clinical Practice (GCP)
In addition to the required training in human subjects protections, and as per NIH policy, training in Good Clinical Practice (GCP) must also be completed by all research team members involved in NIH-supported clinical trials. NIH defines a clinical trial as any research study in which one or more human subjects are prospectively assigned to one or more interventions (which may include placebo or other control) to evaluate the effects of those interventions on health-related biomedical or behavioral outcomes.
GCP Training can be completed through the CITI program found here.
Training in Human Subjects Protection (HSP)
Training in the protection of human subjects in research is required for all university members (i.e., faculty, students, researchers and staff), and collaborators, who will directly interact with research participants or have access to identifiable private information. Training in human subjects protections (HSP) must be completed, and the completion report obtained, prior to seeking review and approval from the IRB to conduct research.
HSP Training can be completed through the CITI program found here.
Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR)
Ensuring the responsible conduct of research is the responsibility of every member of the research community. At the University of Delaware, faculty, students and staff are held to the highest standards of conduct in every aspect of the University’s academic and research charge. In addition to University policies, researchers are subject to a complex set of international, federal and state rules and regulations that set boundaries and define acceptable practices for the different scientific fields.
It is the objective of this training to provide information about the basic rules that apply to the responsible conduct of research; from ethical considerations in performing research, to the appropriate ways of investigating with human subjects or animals, to the permitted used of research funding, among many others. RCR training is designed to provide the research community with a compiled reference of the guidelines and resources available at UD to responsibly conduct research.
Who is Required to Complete RCR Training?
All members of the UD research community are encouraged and welcome to participate in RCR training. In addition, several federal funding agencies have distinct requirements as to who needs to complete RCR training:
- Under NIH policy, RCR instruction is to be completed by all trainees, fellows and scholars receiving NIH support through any NIH training, career development award (individual or institutional), research education grant or dissertation research grant. Under the NIH requirements, RCR training should be taken at least once during each career stage, at a frequency of no less than every four years, and involve substantive contact hours.
- Per NSF requirement, undergraduate and graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers receiving NSF funding to perform research, are required to complete RCR training.
- NIFA dictates that program directors, faculty, undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and any staff participating in a funded research or research-related project receive appropriate training and oversight in the responsible and ethical conduct of research.
It is the responsibility of each faculty member and principal investigator (PI) to ensure that all personnel funded by their project(s) and required to complete RCR training do so in a timely manner consistent with applicable agency policy.
RCR training at UD is provided in two different formats
- Training is available online to all UD members throughout the year at the Collaborative Insitutional Training Initiative (CITI Program). To complete online training, please register at the CITI program site and add the University of Delaware as an institutional affiliation in your account. Select the Responsible Conduct of Research course by clicking on the “Add a Course” option at the bottom of the Courses page. To successfully complete training you must pass all required modules with a minimum passing grade of 85 percent overall. Once all training requirements are completed you will receive a completion certificate and report. A copy of the completion report is automatically sent to Research Office.
- In-person, RCR instruction is also offered annually by the Research Office and the Graduate College. Traditionally, the program is scheduled at the end of the winter session and includes presentations and interactive discussions on a complete portfolio of topics related to RCR and tailored to UD, such as Research Compliance and Research Ethics.
- Online RCR training is sufficient to fulfill the NSF, and NIFA requirements. NIH prescribes that formal and informal in-person discussions on these topics should also be part of RCR instruction. In addition to the completion of on-line CITI RCR course, attendance to the in-person option is expected and a requisite, to satisfy NIH training requirements. For graduate student participants, attendance will be noted as a non-credit course completion on their transcript and pre-registration is required Detailed information about RCR conferences and a link to the registration is provided prior to each in-person event.
Responsible Research Guide for PIs
To ensure compliance with applicable rules, regulations and contract requirements, the University of Delaware requires all principal investigator’s (PIs) to receive training in the financial management of sponsored projects. Developed for PIs already at the University, the University’s training program focuses on stewardship of funds, mandatory reporting requirements and particularized training in the fundamentals of federal grant and contract accounting. PIs must complete mandatory training before the University will release project funding.
OMB Uniform Guidance
The federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has made a major change to the underlying guidance by which university recipients of federal awards have operated for decades. OMB combined eight separate circulars, applicable to different types of grantee organizations, into a single document, “CFR Title 2, Part 200: Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards,” commonly referred to as the Uniform Guidance (UG).
Below you can find some resources.
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