To assist Georgetown researchers in understanding risks and taking appropriate actions to protect their research projects, and to meet federal requirements, Georgetown provides training on research security, foreign travel security and export control requirements, as part of its research security program. Those who are engaged, or may soon be engaged, in federally sponsored research, foreign travel supported by federal funds or activities that implicate export control requirements, are required to complete training.
General Research Security Training
NSPM-33 and the Chips and Science Act (and Guidelines for Research Security Programs at Covered Institutions) include requirements that universities certify they have established a research security training program for all “covered individuals” and that such individuals have completed the training.
The training is required to cover research security topics, including researcher responsibilities, key federal requirements, the importance of the core values of academic research to research security, the importance of accurate disclosures, threats to research security and other topics.
Am I a Covered Individual?
A “covered individual” is defined as an individual who (A) contributes in a substantive, meaningful way to the scientific development or execution of a research and development project proposed to be carried out with a research and development award from a federal research agency; and (B) is designated as a covered individual by the federal research agency concerned.
Covered individuals include, but are not limited to, named senior/key personnel on proposals submitted to federal funding agencies and/or named on award documentation from federal funding agencies.
Training Requirements
A training module has been created by sponsoring agencies (including NSF, DOD, DOE and NIH) to meet federal research security training requirements; Georgetown has included institution-specific content and resource information in this module. The training takes approximately 60 minutes to complete and will be available in GMS within the My Learning application.
Covered Individuals at Georgetown (senior/key personnel on federal research) are required to complete this training within 12 months prior to applying for new federal funding and annually thereafter. Senior/key personnel on federal research will be prompted to complete the training in a timely manner based on federal research sponsor requirements.
Current agency requirements:
- Named senior/key personnel on National Science Foundation (NSF) and Department of Energy (DOE) proposals will be required to complete the training before proposal submission, effective Oct. 10, 2025.
- Named senior/key personnel on National Institutes of Health (NIH) proposals will be required to complete the training before proposal submission, effective Jan. 25, 2026 (and earlier as requested).
If you have not been assigned the training course or cannot access the training course and believe you are subject to the training requirements, please contact JORA.
Foreign Travel Security and Export Control Training
Additional specific foreign travel security training may be required for federally-funded researchers based on specific research sponsor or specific research project requirements, as well as a researcher’s destination and the nature of their research.
Researchers who perform research and development involving export-controlled technologies may also be subject to additional specific training on U.S. export control and compliance requirements. Questions about export control requirements should be directed to the university’s export control officer at exportcontrol@georgetown.edu.
If these additional training requirements apply to you, JORA and/or ORO will notify you of these obligations. If you become aware of these additional requirements applying to you through communication with specific federal research sponsor program officials or other sponsor contacts, please notify JORA and ORO immediately.