Research Ethics

Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Training Policy

All graduate students and postdoctoral appointees are required to complete RCR education by completing the Ethics and Professional Integrity in Research course. The training must be completed as soon as possible upon the start of appointment at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

For Postdoctoral Appointees

The training requirement will be waived if the postdoctoral appointee can provide evidence of comparable training from another U.S. research university or academic medical center. Postdoctoral appointees who have satisfactorily completed IND 501 or IND 506 at the U of R within the last 4 years are considered to be in compliance with the requirement and will receive an automatic waiver. Those who have completed either course at the U of R more than 4 years from the start of their initial appointment may petition the course director if they seek a waiver.

Examples of prior training that would not likely qualify for waiver would be exclusively online courses, courses that did not cover most of the NIH required topics or courses that did not have a significant small group discussion component.

Postdoctoral appointees that would like to request a waiver should contact Dr. Paul Kammermeier  (Basic Science) or Kelley O’Donoghue (Clinical Research) and copy course administrator Ben Lovell. With your request, please include:

1. A syllabus for the comparable training, and
2. A transcript indicating successful completion of the training (unofficial transcripts are acceptable).