National Science Foundation Requirement
Louisiana State University’s Implementation and Oversight Plan - January 2010
The ethical and responsible conduct of research is an obligation fundamental to the process of scholarly inquiry. It benefits the entire LSU community to ensure that everyone engaged in scholarly work has
received appropriate and rigorous training in matters pertaining to the ethical and responsible conduct of research.
In compliance with the new NSF Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training requirement stemming from section 7009 of the America COMPETES Act (42 U.S.C. 1862), LSU has adopted an implementation and oversight plan to ensure appropriate instruction in the responsible conduct of research for undergraduate, graduate students and post-doctoral scholars working on NSF funded projects.
Effective January 2010, the training to meet the RCR requirement for relevant members of the LSU community will be attained via the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative, found at https://www.citiprogram.org/Default.asp. There are six discipline specific modules, and it is up to the Principal Investigator to determine which of these is most appropriate for his/her students or postdoctoral scholars.
These include RCR training in:
a. Biomedical Responsible Conduct of Research Course
b. Social and Behavioral Responsible Conduct of Research Course
c. Physical Science Responsible Conduct of Research Course
d. Humanities Responsible Conduct of Research Course
e. Responsible Conduct of Research for Engineers
f. Responsible Conduct of Research for Administrators
It is the responsibility of the PI to ensure that all covered parties are in compliance with the RCR requirements. Once the PI determines which module is most appropriate for students and postdoctoral scholars associated with the project, the following procedures should be followed:
1. The PI will develop and maintain a list of all undergraduate, graduate student and postdoctoral scholars that are funded by or cost-shared to an NSF funded proposal submitted on or after January 4, 2010.
2. The PI will instruct the persons on this list to register for and receive RCR certification through the CITI Program within 90 days of beginning work on the project or before the end of the project, whichever comes first.
3. Upon successful certification, registrants should print out multiple copies of the completion certificate, and provide 3 copies to the PI.
4. The PI will provide a memo documenting all undergraduate, graduate student, and postdoctoral scholars funded by or cost-shared to the NSF grant to the Office of Research and Economic Development (130 David Boyd Hall), and include the following information: PI name, student or post-doctoral scholar name, 2 copies of certification for each, NSF award number, title, account number, originating/administrating unit.
This training is only required for the above named groups at this time, but all members of the campus community are strongly encouraged to take advantage of this important professional enhancement opportunity.