Research Training

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Training Requirement

Davidson College requires all investigators: faculty, students, staff (anyone named as personnel on a new or existing non-exempt research project), and faculty serving as faculty sponsors for student research projects, to complete human subjects training:

CITI Research Ethics and Compliance Training Courses

Researchers must complete their research certification via CITI Program's Research Ethics and Training Certification courses. Visit our CITI Compliance Training page for detailed registration and course enrollment instructions. This training will satisfy the Davidson College training requirement for three years from the date of completion.

Training completed under previous Davidson-approved training programs or materials is now expired.  New and renewed training must be completed via CITI. 

For a brief overview of this history and federal regulations on research with human subjects, you may review our brief tutorial.  The information in this tutorial is covered in depth in the CITI courses; this tutorial does not replace the training requirement though CITI.

Does Your Project Require Training Certification?

  • Non-exempt Research:  Training is mandatory.
  • Exempt Research: Training recommended but not mandatory.  Note that if a protocol submitted for exemption is subsequently determined to be non-exempt, training must be completed prior to approval.
  • Faculty Sponsors for Student Research Projects: All faculty sponsoring student research projects - both course related and independent research - must complete CITI Human Subjects Research - Basic training, under Group 1: Social & Behavioral Research Investigators. 

The IRB may accept alternate training if the researcher can produce documentation indicating completion of a comparable training course, the training mechanism, and the data of completion.  Such documentation should accompany the application submission or be sent to the IRB office upon request.

Federal Compliance

Davidson College’s access to federal research funding depends on compliance with federal regulations for the protection of human subjects in research as governed by the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Subjects (HHS).  OHRP requires that all members of the College’s Human Subjects Institutional Review Board (IRB) and any individual conducting and/or supervising federally-funded research involving human subjects complete a program of instruction on the responsible treatment of human subjects. Further, OHRP recommends that all research investigators complete appropriate institutional educational training before conducting human subjects research.  Visit their website to view key resources related to the Common Rule.