The Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) continuing education requirements are designed to provide ongoing information and guidance to faculty, professionals, and administrators to promote the University's ideals for scientific and scholarly integrity, and to minimize institutional risks.

To meet the continuing education requirement of the Senate policy, the RCR Continuing Education program has been developed for faculty and principal investigators (PI).

RCR Continuing Education is comprised of two components:

A. Information Updates - which must be renewed annually.
B. Awareness/Discussion - which must be renewed once every three years.

Re-taking RCR core courses (RCR Parts 1 and 2) do not fulfill the continuing education requirement.

A. Information Update (renewed annually online):
To stay current on information about regulations and policies related to research conduct, faculty and PIs are required to review updates on an annual basis, particularly those that are relevant to their research, scholarship, and outreach. PIs will need to have completed their review of these materials within the 12 months that precede a grant/contract award (date on the Notice of Grant Award). The Electronic Grants Management System (EGMS) will notify PIs via email of this requirement at the time of proposal submission.

This information is contained on a website that is maintained by the Office of the Vice President for Research. Faculty and PIs can access the website at their convenience for an overview of changes in regulations and policies, or follow links to more in-depth information.

Click here to create your personilized information update
http://www.research.umn.edu/first/contedu/

B. Awareness/Discussion (renewed once every 3 years in person):
This component will be enforced beginning Fall 2008 to allow enough time for faculty and PIs to build an activity into their schedule.

To maintain awareness and promote ongoing discussion of responsible research, scholarship and professional ethics issues, faculty and PIs are encouraged to participate in “active learning” activities related to these topics, and to share this information with their colleagues and graduate students. To meet this component of the continuing education requirement, faculty and PIs are required to report these activities once every three years. To help faculty members remember to report these activities as continuing education, EGMS will notify PIs at the time of proposal submission.

If you are organizing an event and think it would fulfill this requirement, please contact Carol Foth at 612-624-1854 or at fothx001@umn.edu with any questions. You may also refer to the "General guidelines for awareness/discussion activities" listed below.