Research Security Training
Overview
The U.S. Government (including federal funding agencies, intelligence agencies and Congress) has expressed increasing concerns about foreign threats to federally funded research activities, including diversion of intellectual property, sharing of confidential information, failure of researchers to disclose research resources and support provided by other organizations, including foreign entities and foreign governments, and other breaches of research ethics which compromise our national security and economic interests.
These threats are often disguised as seemingly normal activities meant by a foreign entity to exert undue influence upon our research enterprise. It is incumbent upon the University’s entire research community including its faculty, staff and students who are engaged in federally funded research, to understand our obligation to identify and mitigate risks so that we can collectively protect our national security and economic interests.
The following training course is a critical part of promoting understanding and increased awareness about research security and our related obligations. It is recommended that all University faculty, staff, and students engaged in the conduct of research complete both trainings.
The training requirements are proliferating throughout the federal agencies so it is highly likely these recommendations will soon be required by more agencies than the DOE.
Research Security Training
enroll for Research Security Training
Required for DOE researchers. Recommended for all researchers.
Estimated time to complete: 60 mins
The DOE, through the 2025-02 Financial Assistance Letter (FAL), requires all "Covered Individuals" to complete Research Security Training (RST) effective May 1st, 2025.
The DOE defines a "Covered Individual" as
“…an individual who (a) contributes in a substantive, meaningful way to the development or execution of the scope of work of a project funded by DOE or proposed for funding by DOE, and (b) is designated as a covered individual by DOE. At a minimum, DOE designates as covered individuals any principal investigator (PI); project director (PD); co-principal investigator (Co-PI); co-project director (Co-PD); project manager; and any individual regardless of title that is functionally performing as a PI, PD, Co-PI, Co-PD, or project manager.”
The University values and encourages international research collaboration and scholarship.
While international projects and activities are important to the university and to individual researchers, these engagements may also present individual and institutional risks. Recognizing, understanding, and dealing with such challenges and related issues will help ensure responsible, effective and productive research collaborations.
Course outline:
- Research security introduction
- Research security definition
- Researcher responsibilities
- Key federal regulations
- Core values of academic research that support research security
- Importance of disclosure for research security
- Disclosure definition
- Conflict of Interest vs. Conflict of Commitment
- Activities, affiliations, and support to be disclosed
- Non-disclosure consequences
- Importance of international collaboration
- Risk mitigation and management