Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR)
All CUNY faculty, staff, postdoctoral scholars, graduate and undergraduate students involved in research are required to complete training in RCR. Researchers must submit a copy of their RCR training certificates with all grant proposals (internal or external) for which they are a principal investigator (PI) or a co-PI to the grants officer at their respective College. RCR Certificate must be received by City Tech OSP before submission of grant application. PIs must maintain copies of students and researchers training certificates who are participating in grant funded research activities.
CUNY subscribes to RCR online training modules offered by Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI). Faculty should complete RCR for CUNY Researchers.
As outlined in the CUNY Research Misconduct Policy the president of each college has designated a Research Integrity Office (RIO) to receive allegations of Research Misconduct involving faculty, staff and/or post-doctoral staff at the college.
The City Tech Research Integrity Officer (RIO) is Professor Jenny Giannopoulou, EGiannopoulou@CityTech.Cuny.Edu
The CUNY Conflict of Interest Policy promotes integrity in research by establishing standards to ensure that there is no reasonable possibility that the design, conduct, reporting or review of research projects at the University, regardless of the source of funding or the commercial exploitation of the results of such projects, will be biased by any conflicting financial interests of a covered individual.
Each investigator (PI and Co-PIs) must complete a CUNY Significant Financial Interest (SFI) Disclosure form via Cayuse eRA system beginning in November 2025.
- at the time of submission of a grant proposal
- at the time PI submits an annual progress report
- within 30 days of any material change in the previously disclosed SFI, discovery or acquisition of a new SFI
- when a new investigator joins an ongoing research project at CUNY
The Conflict of Interest (CIO) at City Tech is Katherine Raymond, KMRaymond@citytech.cuny.edu
Research Security
Research security training is mandated for individuals involved in federally funded research by U.S. federal regulations such as the CHIPS and Science Act and National Security Presidential Memorandum 33 (NSPM-33). Federal agencies require, or will require, both institutional and individual certifications that research security training has been completed within 12 months prior to submitting proposals for funding.
In response, the CUNY Office of Research has deployed the NSF SECURE Center’s Condensed Training Module in CUNY’s Brightspace. This training satisfies the research security training requirement of the Department of Defense, Department of Energy (effective May 1, 2025), National Science Foundation (effective October 10, 2025), and National Institutes of Health (anticipated to be required as of January 25, 2026).
Note: this training also satisfies NIH’s requirement to provide training on “other support” (effective October 1, 2025).
How to access and complete the Research Security Training course:
- Log in to Brightspace using your CUNYfirst credentials.
- Click Discover and search “Research Security Training.”
- Select the course titled Research Security Training and Self-Enroll.
- Complete the four-section module in one sitting and attest to completion at the end.
- Download your Certificate of Completion from the course Awards area.
CUNY will implement a Research Security Training requirement for all federally supported projects beginning January 1, 2026.
Human Research Protection Program (HRPP)
The CUNY Human Research Protection Program (HRPP) is responsible for the protection of the rights and welfare of human subjects in research projects conducted at CUNY or by CUNY faculty, staff and students and RF CUNY staff. The program provides oversight, administrative support and educational training to ensure that CUNY research complies with Federal and State regulations, University policy and the highest ethical standards.
OSP recommends that applications that include Human Subjects begin the submission of initial IRB application at https://ideate.cuny.edu/home/ after application is submitted to sponsor. You will be required to complete the information requested in the ‘Funding’ tab of your IRB application, and you will also be required to complete as much of the IRB application as you can for this initial submission. If you are funded, you will be required to submit an amendment to your initial IRB application. Information is available at the City Tech HRPP website
City Tech’s HRPP coordinator is Professor Tina Kao, tkao@citytech.cuny.edu.