Policies and Procedures

The following policies and procedures outline the RCR training requirements for Michigan Tech, organized by category of researcher. 

*in person training requirement for all personnel on grant to be completed by PI and is explained in each applicable NIH grant

Regulations

General topics to be covered in RCR training may include, but are not limited to:

• conflict of interest personal, professional, and financial and conflict of commitment, in allocating time, effort, or other research resources
• policies regarding human subjects, live vertebrate animal subjects in research, and safe laboratory practices
• mentor/mentee responsibilities and relationships
• safe research environments (e.g., free of sexual, racial, ethnic, disability and other forms of discriminatory harassment)
• collaborative research, including collaborations with industry and investigators and institutions in other countries
• peer review, including the responsibility for maintaining confidentiality and security in peer review
• data acquisition and analysis; laboratory tools (e.g., tools for analyzing data and creating or working with digital images); recordkeeping practices, including methods such as electronic laboratory notebooks
• secure and ethical data use; data confidentiality, management, sharing, and ownership
• research misconduct and policies for handling misconduct
• responsible authorship and publication
• the scientist as a responsible member of society, contemporary ethical issues in biomedical research, and the environmental and societal impacts of scientific research

Funding agency specific RCR Regulations

• NIH - requires eight hours of face-to-face training every four years for trainees, fellows, participants, and scholars.  The plan for meeting these requirements is included in the grant application.  Please visit NIH Responsible Conduct of Research Training for additional information.
• NSF - All principal investigators, co-investigators, faculty, key persons, postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate students supported by NSF funding at Michigan Tech must be trained in Responsible Conduct of Research.  Please visit NSF Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research for additional information.
• USDA NIFA - All principal investigators, co-investigators, and participants supported by a USDA NIFA award must be trained in Responsible Conduct of Research.  Please visit USDA NIFA Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research for additional information.