In the Spotlight

In this edition of the IntegrityStar, we want to highlight two very important research compliance initiatives. The first initiative involves several compliance partners, including those in the UCF Information Security Office and the Research Compliance Office within the Office of Research and Commercialization. University Compliance, Ethics, and Risk has formed a working group with the two offices to prepare for the compliance requirements under the Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-171, Protecting Controlled Unclassified Information in Nonfederal Information Systems and Organizations. UCF’s relationship with the federal government through sponsored research requires that we implement security and data protection processes and deploy security technologies to protect “Sensitive but Unclassified” information. The NIST requirements are far reaching and affect multiple areas of the university. The offices working on this major initiative have devoted much time and effort to ensure that the university retains and protects our relationships with the federal government.

In addition to implementing NIST, the Research Compliance Office within the Office of Research and Commercialization is delivering mandatory grant research award training jointly with University Compliance, Ethics, and Risk. The offices developed and provided 14 Grant Research Award Training sessions to faculty and administrators at the College of Engineering & Computer Science and College of Sciences Mentoring Event, College of Engineering & Computer Science, College of Sciences, College of Medicine, College of Optics & Photonics, Institute for Simulation & Training, and NanoScience Technology. This training is an ongoing effort to ensure that all research faculty and staff members receive training in federal compliance requirements, and it is critical in supporting our researchers and retaining our research funding.

These research compliance initiatives are two very good examples of the proactive compliance work occurring in support of research here at UCF.