NIH RCR Requirements
Explore this page to understand the National Institutes of Health (NIH) requirements for training in the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR).
Who do the NIH RCR requirements apply to?
Applicable to all trainees, fellows, participants, and scholars receiving support through any NIH institutional research training grant, career development award, fellowship award, research education grant, or dissertation research grant; or as otherwise stated in the relevant funding opportunity announcements.
This applies to the following NIH award types:
- D43, D71
- F05, F30, F31, F32, F33, F34, F37, F38, F99
- K01, K02, K05, K07, K08, K12, K18, K22, K23, K24, K25, K26, K30, K99/R00, KL1, KL2
- R25, R36
- T15, T32, T34, T35, T36, T37, T90/R90, TL1, TU2, and U2R
- And any other NIH-funded programs supporting research training, career development, or research education that require instruction in responsible conduct of research as stated in the relevant funding opportunity announcements.
See the NIH’s RCR Policy Update for additional information.
NIH Principle Investigator (PI) responsibilities
PIs on NIH awards with RCR requirements must include a RCR instructional plan in their proposal and are responsible for ensuring that trainees, fellows, and scholars on qualifying NIH awards have completed RCR training. Applications without a RCR plan may be delayed in the review process or not reviewed at all.
RCR plans for NIH proposals must address the following 5 components, as outlined in the NIH Policy on Instruction in RCR, as more fully described in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, Section 11.3.3.5: Training in the Responsible Conduct of Research
In addition to the below, the RCR plan must also describe how participation in RCR instruction will be monitored. The PI must comply with specific reporting requirements in continuation applications.
Check out a sample NIH RCR plan for additional guidance.
Describe the required format of instruction, i.e., face-to-face lectures, coursework, and/or real-time discussion groups. A plan with only online instruction is not acceptable.
Describe the breadth of subject matter, e.g., conflict of interest, authorship, data management, human subjects and animal use, laboratory safety, research misconduct, and research ethics.
Describe the roles of mentor(s) and other faculty involvement in the instruction.
Describe the total number of contact hours of instruction.
Instruction must occur during each career stage and at least once every four years. Document any prior instruction during the applicant’s current career stage, including the inclusive dates instruction was last completed.
Frequency of instruction
- NIH requires that reflection on RCR recur throughout a scientist’s career: at the undergraduate, post-baccalaureate, predoctoral, postdoctoral, and faculty levels.
- Institutional training programs and individual fellows/scholars are strongly encouraged to consider how to optimize instruction in RCR for the particular career stage(s) of the individual(s) involved.
- Instruction must be undertaken at least once during each career stage, and at a frequency of no less than once every four years.
- It is highly encouraged that initial instruction during predoctoral training occur as early as possible in graduate school.
- Individuals at the early career investigator level (including mentored K awardees and K12 scholars) must receive instruction in RCR at least once during this career stage.
- To meet the above requirements, instruction in RCR may take place, in appropriate circumstances, in a year when the trainee, fellow or career award recipient is not actually supported by an NIH grant.
University of Rochester programs that fulfill NIH RCR requirements
Aside from the training courses for graduate students and postdoctoral appointees through URMC, all RCR training modules and programs may be accessed through CITI We’ve developed instructions for logging in to CITI to help you get started.
Modules fall under the “Biomedical Investigators” category in CITI:
- Research Misconduct
- Data Management
- Authorship
- Peer Review
- Mentoring and Health Research Environments
- Using Animal Subjects in Research
- Conflicts of Interest and Commitment
- Collaborative Research
- Research Involving Human Subjects
- Introduction to Responsible Conduct of Research
- Plagiarism
- Authorship
- Collaborative Research
- Conflicts of Interest and Commitment
- Financial Responsibility
- Peer Review
- Research Misconduct
- Data Management
- Mentoring and Healthy Research Environments
- Research Misconduct
- Data Management
- Mentoring and Healthy Research Environments