Pitt Helping to Develop Research Security Training

Pitt is part of a consortium of academic institutions selected by NSF to develop training modules for the federal government on key issues in research security. New federal mandates intended to protect U.S. research interests from foreign and domestic risks require that recipients of federal research funding receive annual training about issues such as assessing and managing collaborations and protecting unpublished data and intellectual property.

A Pitt team headed by Bill Yates, vice chancellor for research protections, is collaborating with the University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Van Andel Institute to create a training module focused on risk management and mitigation. The module will show researchers and their institutions ways to assess, reduce, and manage security risks in research. Volunteers at Pitt from graduate students to professors and research administrators, are participating in focus groups to help develop the new training.