Time-Sensitive Action: Mandatory Research Security Training
Memo to RAC 5/18/26
Hello RAC,
Please see the below email that was sent on May 4th to faculty from Dr. Patrick O’Shea, Vice President for Research.
The Research Security Training is an annual requirement and is required prior to submission for all proposals for sponsored funding for proposal submission for due dates on/after May 25, 2026.
Questions can be directed to my attention or the SPA Research Security Team.
Thank you,
Jill
Jill A. Frankenfield
Associate Vice President, Sponsored Programs Administration
May 4, 2026
Dear Colleagues,
In 2025, the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) implemented a new, annual Research Security Training program in accordance with federal guidelines. To date, more than 1,200 UMB personnel have completed the required training. Thank you to everyone who has worked to make this training a success.
Originally, only Covered Individuals and Senior/Key Persons for federal/federal flow-through-sponsored proposals were required to complete the training, but changes in sponsor requirements have necessitated an expansion of these research security requirements plus an update to the content. UMB will now require the training to be completed for all sponsored funding
Effective for proposal deadlines on or after May 25, 2026, all Principal Investigators (PIs) and Senior/Key Persons listed on any proposal submission for sponsored funding through SPA must have completed the required annualResearch Security Training prior to proposal submission. Failure to complete the training may result in a proposal not being submitted to the sponsor. Research Security Training also may be required prior to submission of non-funded agreement requests, just-in-time requests, and technical/program reports if the annual training was not previously completed.
The SPA Proposal Team will verify completion of training in the Person Training Details tab of the Kuali Research Key Personnel section of a Kuali Research Proposal. Department research administrators can check the status of an individual’s training in this same panel. The date submitted must be within 12 months of the submission of the proposal.
In addition to the expansion to all sponsored funding proposals, PIs and Senior/Key Persons at UMB will now complete the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Research Security Training (RST) Condensed Training Module. This 1-hour NSF training has been added to Percipio. This change aligns with NSF’s Important Notice No. 149, which states: “NSF, NIH, DOE, DOD, and USDA all recognize completion of the condensed module as compliant with their respective RST requirements.”
PIs and Senior/Key Persons will begin receiving automated emails from Percipio with assignments to complete the annual training. Automated emails will be sent 60 days prior to 12-month deadlines based on training completion data entered in Kuali Research. Please visit the Research Security Program website to gain access to the NSF RST Condensed Training Module and find more information on the program.
Contact SPA-Research_Security@umaryland.edu if you have questions or bring questions to Research Security virtual office hours on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month from 2 to 3:30 p.m.
Thank you for your cooperation in complying with this important requirement.
Sincerely,
Patrick O’Shea, PhD, MS
Vice President for Research