Undergraduate students who are participating in research sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and/or the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) are required to complete this training. Students who complete the training will receive a certificate of completion valid for four years. Faculty sponsors and principal investigators of such research should ensure that any participating undergraduate students have completed this training.

More information and an enrollment link will be available at Undergraduate Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Training.

Critically, “NIH notes that most foreign co-authorship represents a foreign component, and that if a foreign engagement is expected to result in co-authorship, the institution should seek prior approval” (per a recent ).

NIH also describes some instances that are not considered foreign components, such as “informal scientific conversations, one-way transfers of data or materials, peer review, conference participation,” and others.

All researchers currently funded by NIH or who are considering applying for NIH funding are strongly encouraged to review this new guidance.

Researchers will need to use a different crowdsourcing platform and will need to modify their IRB (Institutional Review Board) application before collecting data using a different platform.

More information on these types of platforms can be found in Online Survey Guidance (Word).

This letter details an upcoming prohibition of NSF funds being used on collaborations with entities on U.S. restricted parties lists, also referred to as “U.S. Proscribed Party Lists.” This change is anticipated to take place during NSF’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2027.

U.S. government agencies maintain lists of high-risk parties/entities who are restricted due to national security and/or other foreign policy interests. NSF has “determined research security risk mitigation for NSF-funded projects involving these restricted entities is not sufficient” – therefore, NSF will soon be “prohibiting collaboration on NSF-funded projects with these restricted entities.”

For more information, please review the full . More information is expected to be released prior to the implementation of this change.

In the meantime, the Office of Research Compliance (ORC) offers informational webpages on the related topics of Research Security and Export Controls. ORC can also screen potential collaborators to ensure they are not restricted parties/entities – requests for screening can be submitted via email to um.export@maine.edu.

If you are interested in trying the system, please contact umric@maine.edu for further instructions.

Cayuse provides the following features/benefits:

• The system features smart form logic – so you will only see the sections of the form that you actually need to complete, based on your study.
• You can view the status of your protocols. Whether it’s under pre-review with the IRB staff or is waiting to be assigned to an IRB member, you can see exactly where your studies are in the review process.
• When you submit a modification, all the changes are automatically highlighted for the reviewers to see.

The review time may be a bit delayed as we all get used to the new system, so we do not recommend submitting anything that is urgent. 

At this time we are only accepting low risk studies that fall into the exempt or  categories (no full board studies). 

Again, if you are interested in trying the system, please contact umric@maine.edu for further instructions. Thank you for your consideration!

This new guidance goes hand in hand with a previously shared NIH notice, NOT-OD-25-132, which describes potential research misconduct risks of using AI in generating research applications.

All NIH researchers are encouraged to review this article. It may also provide helpful context for other researchers, as more funding agencies will likely release their own AI guidance in the future.

For more information on AI at 91����, please see the .

For more information on research misconduct, please see the Office of Research Compliance’s Research Misconduct website.

Undergraduate students who are participating in research sponsored by the National Science
Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and/or the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) are required to complete this training. Students
who complete the training will receive a certificate of completion valid for four years. Faculty sponsors
and principal investigators of such research should ensure that any participating undergraduate
students have completed this training.

More information is available at Undergraduate Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Training.

As a reminder, effective October 1, 2025, NIH previously relayed a requirement to train Senior/Key Personnel on Other Support Disclosure requirements per the July 17, 2025 notice .

For current information on research security training requirements, please visit Training for Research Security.

This change applies to new and three-year renewal protocols submitted to 91���� and subsequently ACURO on or after January 1, 2026.

For new Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) protocols with DoD funding submitted after January 1, 2026, submit them separately from protocols funded by other sources.

A new webpage on the 91���� IACUC website has been created as a permanent resource for this information.

This edition includes the following topics:

• Spotlight: Updates on Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Research
• Reminder: Research Security Training
• Human Subjects Research: NIH (National Institutes of Health) Reminder of Requirement for Certification of IRB Approval
• New & Updated Compliance Resources
• Research Compliance in the News

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