Research Compliance

Financial Conflict of Interest (FCOI) practices promote objectivity in research by establishing standards that provide a reasonable expectation that the design, conduct, and reporting of research funded by federal agencies will be free from bias resulting from investigator financial conflicts of interest.

UNG has established an FCOI policy and procedure that applies to all proposals and awards funded by a federal agency:

Requirements

FCOI Disclosure:
UNG faculty and staff participating as Investigators (individuals responsible for the design, conduct, and/or reporting of a project) on these projects are required to submit a Financial Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form (login required) at the time of proposal submission and, if awarded, annually thereafter.

Training:
All investigators funded by the Public Health Service (PHS) must complete Conflicts of Interest training through CITI prior to engaging in activity related to the PHS-funded grant and every four years thereafter.

Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988

As a recipient of federal funds, University of North Georgia supports and complies with the provisions of the Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988. UNG’s policy statement on alcohol and substance abuse is available in the Employee Handbook Section 1.0.4 (PDF). Several drug-free awareness programs are made available to UNG employees free of charge. Namely, the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is available to employees for Drug-Free Workplace training, as well as for counseling and other services dealing with substance abuse.

Under this Act, employees on a federal grant or contract must

  1. Abide by the terms of UNG’s alcohol and substance abuse policy;
  2. Notify UNG within five calendar days if he or she is convicted of a criminal drug violation in the workplace. After receiving such notice, UNG must notify the contracting or granting agency within 10 days of the conviction; and
  3. Receive a penalty or participate in a drug abuse assistance or rehabilitation program if the employee is convicted of a reportable workplace drug conviction

Resources for Employees Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

All scholarship and research that involves humans, whether funded or unfunded, must be approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) prior to the start of a new project or the continuation of an ongoing project (e.g. this includes the recruiting of subjects and collecting data). The IRB is a federally mandated committee that provides ethical oversight for all research involving human subjects.

For projects funded by an external sponsor, IRB approval must be obtained before an award is made or a contract or agreement is fully executed. In some cases, IRB review must be complete at the time of proposal submission. Each sponsor has different regulations that must be followed concerning human subjects research and IRB approval – check the guidelines of the program you are submitting to for details and work with OSP to ensure you are following the right steps.

The Office of Research Integrity (ORI) defines research misconduct as the “fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results.”

Federal regulations require Responsible and Ethical Conduct of Research (RECR/RCR) training in the following instances:

National Science Foundation (NSF)

Training and oversight is required for undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, faculty, and other senior/key personnel who will be supported by NSF to conduct research (PAPPG Part II IX.B).

 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

All personnel conducting extramural research funded by USDA-NIFA per the Code of Federal Regulations (2 CFR Part 422).

National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Training and oversight “applies to all NIH Institutional Research Training Grants, Individual Fellowship Awards, Career Development Awards (Institutional and Individual), Research Education Grants, Dissertation Research Grants, or other grant programs with a training component that requires instruction in responsible conduct of research as noted in the Funding Opportunity Announcement.” (NOT-OD-10-019)

Training

RECR/RCR training is available through CITI. Contact grants@ung.edu for more information.