The following are summaries of news transmitted to RRC subscribers this month in email issues, the date of which is indicated in parentheses following each item. Weekly email and monthly print issues of RRC are archived on your subscriber-only website. Please call 888.580.8373 or email service@hcca-info.org if you require a password to access RRC’s subscriber-only website or are not receiving weekly email issues of the newsletter.

◆ The National Science Foundation (NSF) has added four questions and answers to a Sept. 21 document clarifying its award term-and-condition implementing its new policy, “Notification Requirements Regarding Sexual Harassment, Other Forms of Harassment, or Sexual Assault.” Now numbered and totaling 14, the questions address subjects such as the security of the reporting process and who is to notify NSF about relevant issues involving principal investigators and co-PIs. Of note, NSF said it expects to be notified of “any administrative action” that an awardee imposes “under organizational policies or codes of conduct, statutes, regulations, or executive orders,” when such an action relates to “teaching, advising, mentoring, research, management/administrative duties, or presence on campus.” NSF noted this is not an exhaustive list, and that it expects to be notified even when the action is an interim, or temporary, measure. (11/15/18)

◆ In a nine-page response to NIH’s request for information (RFI) regarding controversial reporting requirements for clinical trials it says apply to basic research studies, the Council on Governmental Relations and a host of research organizations and associations have again requested that the agency go back to the drawing board. NIH issued the RFI in August after Congress intervened and told the agency to put the policy on hold while it addresses concerns. Some in the research community have voiced objections to NIH’s expansion of the types of studies subject to reporting on ClinicalTrials.gov and other requirements (RRC 8/16/18). (11/15/18)