CITI Training Requirements

Key personnel are generally members of a study team (i.e., faculty, staff, students or non-FSU collaborators) who are engaged in research involving human subjects, such as study team members who will conduct interactions or interventions for a research purpose with any human subject, including obtaining subjects’ informed consent, or who will (with or without interaction or intervention) obtain individuals’ identifiable private information or identifiable biospecimens.

The OHSP uses HRP-311 - Worksheet - Engagement Determination in order to determine whether individuals are “engaged” in human research; refer to this worksheet as a reference.

• If you have already completed CITI HSR training but your CITI Profile email does not match one of the emails in your RAMP IRB submission (e.g., in your CITI profile you are affiliated with another institution, or you are not using your FSU preferred or business emails), then your CITI HSR training record will not be synced in RAMP IRB and you may not see your completed CITI HSR training under the RAMP IRB Training tab. You may update your CITI profile by making certain that you affiliate with FSU in your CITI profile or use your FSU preferred or business email in your CITI profile. However, if either of the email addresses listed for you in RAMP IRB are incorrect, please contact FSU ITS for assistance with updating your FSU emails.
• Submissions in RAMP IRB for IRB review are synced with CITI records to capture information about course completion, using your FSU “Business” or “Preferred” emails matched to CITI records. Any mismatch will fail this sync.
• Submissions that lack documentation of the required CITI HSR training for any key member of the study team will, before IRB approval is granted, be returned to you to have the CITI HSR training requirement completed and uploaded into your RAMP IRB submission.
• CITI "refresher" training must be re-certified every three years. You are responsible for tracking your initial and required re-certification. You will NOT be notified by OHSP when your training is about to expire, so plan accordingly.
• The CITI offers many kinds of training; however other CITI training DO NOT satisfy the required CITI Human Subjects Research training requirement.

• While valuable or required by other FSU programs, Responsible Conduct of Research, Conflicts of Interest, Health Information Privacy & Security, and Export Controls training are NOT the same as HSR training.
• For National Science Foundation (NSF) applicants or awardees (including faculty and other senior study personnel) of new funding proposals submitted on or after July 31, 2023, training in the responsible and ethical conduct of research (RECR) is required; visit this NSF proposal and award RECR guidance and the FSU Office of Research Compliance web page to learn more about this new NSF requirement. The FSU IRB is NOT the proponent office for this new or other NSF RECR training requirement, so do not inquire of the FSU IRB whether any responsible conduct of research training does or will satisfy the NSF requirement.

• There is no cost to you for taking CITI courses when you are affiliated with FSU.
• Refer to your funding sponsor about other training requirements that may be required, and contact The FSU Office of Research Compliance Programs (ORCP) at FSU to ensure these required trainings are completed as appropriate. The ORCP may be contacted by phone at 850-644-8648 or email at research-compliance@fsu.edu

For researchers new to the University but who have previously completed CITI training, and for researchers who are transferring projects to FSU, current CITI HSR training certificates are required with initial project transfer. These certificates may indicate affiliation with a prior institution and will not "sync" with RAMP IRB, but will be accepted by the IRB if separately uploaded in the RAMP IRB study workspace. However, once the project and PI have transferred to FSU, the institutional affiliation within the CITI account must be updated to FSU so that the University has access to CITI course completion information. The affiliation with "Florida State University" must be initiated and the above "Instructions to enroll in the correct CITI course" must be completed to access the correct modules. Evidence of having completed Human Subjects Protections training should be provided to the OHSP when an application is submitted for IRB review, and must be documented as a condition of IRB approval.