Principal Investigator Eligibility and Training Requirements

New Faculty Training

The University of Minnesota has established criteria for faculty and other academic staff to be permitted to serve as Principal Investigators (PI) on sponsored research. All new academic staff must attend Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Parts I and II. RCR Part I is in a traditional classroom, in-person session while RCR Part II can be completed online. More information is included on the website of the Office of the Vice President for Research: http://cflegacy.research.umn.edu/first/NewFacultyEdReqs.htm.

Continuing Education

Principal Investigators are then required to complete continuing education in two ways.

• Annual Information Update - To stay current with University and funding agency policies, each PI must review an information update online, annually.


• Awareness / Discussion - Every three years PIs must attend an in-person seminar, workshop or discussion on a topic of research ethics.

More information on continuing education requirements can be found at http://cflegacy.research.umn.edu/first/ContEd.htm.

Human Subjects Training

Any PI, research staff or graduate research assistant who will be working on a project involving human subjects must complete Human Subjects training. There are several options for online training in Human Subjects Protection: http://cflegacy.research.umn.edu/first/HumanSubjects.htm.