Research Security Training Requirement Update – Sept. 2025 - Office of Research Compliance

Research Security Training Requirement Update – Sept. 2025

September 18, 2025 News, Research Security

The following message was sent via email to all University of Maine employees on September 18, 2025 by the Office of the Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School.

This communication is a follow up to the April 17, 2025 notice about a new Research Security Training Requirement implemented by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in response to U.S. federal regulations such as National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM-33) (external link) and the security-related provisions under the CHIPS & Science Act (external link).

On July 8, 2025, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued an internal memo (PDF) (external link) indicating this training requirement will appear in all new research and development (R&D) or science and technology (S&T) awards.
In a July 10, 2025 notice (external link), the National Science Foundation (NSF) confirmed the training requirement goes into effect on October 10, 2025.
In a July 17, 2025 notice (external link) the National Institutes of Health (NIH) relayed a requirement to Train Senior/Key Personnel on Other Support Disclosure requirements which goes into effect on October 1^st
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.

In order to ensure compliance with both current and forthcoming agency-required research security training requirements, we highly encourage all Principal Investigators and Co-Investigators (i.e. Senior/Key Personnel) involved in federal funding, in particular those planning to submit proposals to federal agencies, to complete Research Security training by October 1^st or soon thereafter to avoid delays at the proposal stage. (Note: This training requirement is already in effect for DOE proposals and may be required prior to October 1^st if it is included as a requirement in the proposal instructions). Training will take approximately 1 hour to complete. For more information about the training requirement, including directions to access this training and who to contact for questions, please review the resource Research Security Training.