Research Security Training and NSF Certification

Please see details below for new federal training and certification requirements. The first section is only for NSF-funded investigators. The second section is for investigators funded by all federal agencies.

REQUIRED FOR NSF-FUNDED INVESTIGATORS 
The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 prohibits participation in malign foreign talent recruitment programs while receiving federal funding. To confirm compliance with this requirement, the National Science Foundation (NSF) requires each principal investigator certify their lack of participation in such a program by logging into research.gov. A prompt will appear when you log in.

REQUIRED FOR ALL INVESTIGATORS
To comply with National Security Presidential Memorandum 33 (NSPM-33) and the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, UK is requiring all investigators, see definition below, currently engaged in research on a federally funded award or submitting a federally funded proposal to complete research security training by October 1, 2025.

“Investigator” means the project director or principal investigator (PI) or program director, co-investigator, collaborator, senior/key personnel, faculty associate, and any other person, regardless of title or position, who is responsible for the design, conduct, reporting or proposing of research or other activity that is sponsored by an extramural agency. For the purposes of this regulation, graduate and undergraduate students generally are not considered investigators. Postdoctoral scholars and fellows may be considered investigators if designated as such by the PI on a case-by-case basis.

This is an annual requirement and must be completed prior to submitting a proposal to a federal funding agency. UK has contracted with CITI Program to offer a one-hour online training course, “Research Security Training (Combined).” Advanced courses in CITI on Risk Mitigation, Cybersecurity, International Collaborations, International Travel, Foreign Interference, Federal Funding & Foreign Gifts and Contracts, and Disclosures and Transparency are also available and will be used as annual refresher training.

To access Research Security Training (Combined):

1. On the ORI Training & Education page click the “UK CITI Access” link.
2. Once you have logged into your UK CITI account, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “Add a Course.”
3. On the UK CITI Select Curriculum page, check the box for Research Security and click “Next.”
4. On the next page, check the box for “Research Security Training (Combined)” and click “Next.”  You have now enrolled in the course.
5. On the UK CITI course page and under Courses Ready to Begin, press “Start Now” in the box titled “Research Security Training (Combined).”
6. Under Required Modules, click “Start” for the module called “Research Security Training (Combined) (ID 21604)” to complete the training. 

Please send questions to Sara Poll, UK’s Research Security Administrator, researchsecurity@uky.edu.

Thank you for your attention to these requirements.