Research EDucation

The Office of Research and Innovation has a number of training and education programs and opportunities to help you be successful with your research activities.

Research Administration Essentials

Research Administration Essentials is a comprehensive education program that brings together existing and new instructional components to meet the research administration needs of faculty, staff, postdoctoral associates and graduate students. The mission of Research Administration Essentials is to ensure that important research at the University of Nebraska continues to move forward, in compliance with funding requirements and in support of the principles of institutional integrity and credibility.

This program is being updated and transitioned from classroom sessions to on-demand online programming. During this transition, the classroom sessions are not offered at this time. Your Sponsored Programs grant specialist is available to help you with any questions or issues you may have.

Grant Writing Seminar

The Office of Research and Innovation offers an annual Write Winning Grant Proposals seminar each Spring semester. Faculty, staff and postdocs are able to select one of the seminar’s four workbooks, depending on the source from which they plan to seek funding: National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, U. S. Department of Agriculture, or a general version geared towards smaller funding agencies and foundations.

Watch for announcements regarding dates and registration opportunities.

Project Verification Statements

Project Verification Statements is a project-based methodology that focuses on a system of internal controls. These controls involve the amount and type of documentation required to support salary, wage and benefit charges to federal, federal pass-through and cost share awards. One report is generated for each project on an annual basis, listing all employees assigned to it.

Research Compliance Services

All personnel involved in conducting research at UNL are highly encouraged to complete Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training. However, in certain instances, this training is required in order to meet federal and sponsor requirements. RCR training is required when receiving funding from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and the National Institutes of Health.

Conflict of Interest (COI) training must be completed by individuals who receive funding from a Public Health Service (PHS) awarding agency. Currently, UNL is using the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) website to meet this regulatory requirement. 

UNL affirms its commitment to maintaining the highest ethical principles in the conduct of research with human participants. Consistent with this commitment and our own Federal-Wide Assurance, UNL requires education of key project personnel, including investigators, students, and other project staff who are engaged in research with human participants, biospecimens, or data. Training must be completed before a protocol can be approved by UNL’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) and must be maintained during the life of the project. 

UNL also requires all personnel, including researchers, faculty, staff and students involved in an export controlled activity to complete and maintain training before and during their work on the activity.

Research Development Fellows Program

The Research Development Fellows Program (RDFP) is an Office of Research and Innovation initiative designed to provide full-time, pre-tenure faculty with the information, resources and approaches necessary to prepare competitive grant proposals.