Your TL;DR: Our team recently completed NSF’s free Research Security Training, a four-module program that took about four hours in total. While the training is increasingly tied to federal research funding requirements, it also reinforces good practices that strengthen proposal development, program evaluation, and responsible stewardship of public funding.
We Invest in Learning So We Can Better Support Our Clients
Our team recently completed the National Science Foundation’s Research Security Training, a free online program consisting of four modules that each take about an hour to complete. It was time well spent.
Research Security is often viewed as a compliance exercise, something you complete because an agency requires it. The training certainly covers those expectations, including disclosure requirements, international collaboration, managing research risks, and protecting the integrity of federally funded work. Yet the bigger takeaway is that research security is really about protecting the credibility of the research enterprise itself.
Whether you’re preparing a proposal, managing an award, or evaluating project outcomes, those principles matter.
If your organization regularly pursues federal research funding, it may be worth considering whether research security training belongs in your own professional development plans, even if it is not yet required for every member of your team.
Why This Matters for Grant Writing and Program Evaluation
At EBHC, we spend our days working with organizations that receive public funding and are entrusted with delivering meaningful results. Proposal development is more than writing a competitive narrative. Program evaluation is more than measuring outcomes. Both depend on transparency, sound documentation, appropriate disclosures, and confidence that research activities are conducted responsibly.
Those expectations are becoming increasingly visible across the federal funding landscape. The CHIPS and Science Act established research security training requirements for many federally funded research activities, and NSF now requires research security certifications for senior and key personnel associated with many proposals. The NSF training is one way organizations can satisfy those expectations, although it is not the only approved option.
Understanding why these requirements exist makes it easier to build stronger internal processes long before proposal submission or project implementation.
A Resource Worth Sharing
One aspect we especially appreciated is that the training is freely available online. Anyone can work through the modules at their own pace and download a certificate of completion when finished.
As research security continues to evolve across federal agencies, investing a few hours today can provide valuable context for tomorrow’s funding opportunities. For organizations building research capacity, startups entering the SBIR/STTR ecosystem, and institutions managing federally funded projects, that is time well invested.