Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research (RECR) Certificate - Undergraduate & Graduate Students is a mandatory requirement for many federal research grants. Many departments and colleges across campus already have well developed, mandatory RCR training for graduate students and postdocs appointed in their unit. For academic units that do not have an existing program, the Graduate School and the Office of Research Integrity & Compliance have teamed up to develop an RCR training program that may be completed by Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Researchers at no cost for University of Utah affiliates. The RECR pathway allows students to access the in-person and/or online classes so that students can customize their RECR certificate to fit their needs.

The “Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research (RCR) Certificate – Undergraduate & Graduate Students” is designed for students in all research settings and that the completion of this certificate ensures that all students are trained in the eight (8) subject matter areas that NIH and NSF include in their training requirements. Participants will become familiar with best practices and proper procedures for conducting RCR, whether they are in health sciences, social and behavioral sciences, or science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Participants will be able to articulate how federal and state regulations, professional standards and University policies underscore the need for RCR in the research enterprise. This certificate requires five (5) REd RECR training class completions that add up to a total of ten (10) contact hours. All students MUST complete the four (4) required classes and one (1) additional class from either the offerings for “bioscience students” or “non-biosciences students.”

Important Information on How to Earn a Certificate of Achievement:

Each certificate requires to complete ALL FOUR (4) REd Foundational classes and ONE (1) REd Elective class from the designated pathway. The majority of these classes need to be completed in-person to meet NIH and NSF training requirements; two classes can be completed online. This requirement translates into three (3) in-person (synchronous) classes and two (2) online (asynchronous) classes. In addition, two (2) of the in-person classes need to be part of the required foundation classes. Each class credit is valid for eighteen (18) months and the entire RCR Certificate is valid for three (3) years upon completion. As a result, it is advised that you renew your RCR Certificate every three (3) years. All REd classes are free to anyone conducting research at the University of Utah. 

Register for the Certificate Canvas Course you want to earn. Classes may be completed in any order.

When all certificate requirements have been satisfied (classes have been attended), please upload all of the Class Completion Certifications to the assignments under the modules tab in this Canvas course with the corresponding class name. (Please see REd instruction)

The Research Education Team will review all your class completion within 5 business days of requirement submission. After that, you will be able to view and print the certificate you have been awarded. (Class Completion Certificates will be in your Canvas Catalog profile, under the completed classes tab.)

An official hardcopy of your certificate can be processed and delivered to a University address upon request. If you have any questions, please contact Office of Research Education at ResearchEducation@utah.edu

Foundation Classes (Select ALL Four):

RED 720 | Foundations of Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) 

RED 710 | Introduction to Research Mentoring

RED 721 | Getting Published: Responsible Authorship and Peer Review

RED 501/554 | Advanced Consideration of the Criteria for IRB Approval of Research

Elective Classes:

Recommended Resource Videos:

Office of Vice President for Research

Office of Research Integrity and Compliance (ORIC)

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

Conflict of Interest (COI)

Office of Research Participant Advocacy (ORPA)

Clinical Research Compliance and Education (CRCE)

Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)

How To Access REd Classes and Enrollment Details

You can access the classes at the University of Utah’s Research Education Student Portal or REd Classes. Click on one of the classes to see its description and the instructors. To register for a class, click on Canvas Catalog.

If you click the link to register for the Online class, it will automatically take you to the Canvas Catalog website, where you can enroll for the class (differentiated from the live version with “REd Online”). Please make sure to log in by using your uNID and password.

Once you have enrolled, Catalog will send you an email confirming your enrollment. You can then access the class you registered for by any of these three (3) options:

1. “Access Your Course” through that confirmation email,
2. You can visit your Student Dashboard (within Catalog) to begin the class,
3. Or you may access the class you registered for within your Canvas Dashboard (Canvas is where each class is hosted).

Please see the REd Instruction (mentioned above) regarding more details on how to find, register for, and complete the Research Education Classes.

There are options for discipline specific research ethics courses. For more information, please contact REd at researcheducation@utah.edu. We are here to help “U”.