New Research Security Training Requirement – April 2025
The following message was sent via email to all University of Maine employees on April 17, 2025 by the Office of the Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School.
To address the growing concerns around research security, U.S. federal regulations such as National Security Presidential Memorandum 33 (NSPM-33) (external link) and the security-related provisions under the CHIPS & Science Act (external link) require specific individuals involved in federally funded research to complete annual research security training.
Beginning on May 1, 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will require all Covered Individuals to complete research security training in the 12 months immediately preceding the application date. Covered Individuals from recipients or subrecipients who are added to an existing DOE award that includes the research security training requirement must complete the training within 30 calendar days of joining. The National Science Foundation (NSF) training requirement is anticipated to take effect in October 2025. Ultimately all federal funders will soon require annual research security training, and it is anticipated that research security training will be required prior to proposal submission.
The university has made a Research Security course available to satisfy this federal requirement for Covered Individuals. Training will take approximately one hour to complete. For more information about the training requirement, including who must complete the training and how to access the training, please review the resource Research Security Training.