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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.
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