Dept. of Energy: Research Security Training & ORCID iD Requirements

Greetings Colleagues, 

As of May 1, 2025, the Dept. of Energy has some new requirements for those who fall into their definition of covered individuals.

DOE Covered Individual Definition

Covered Individual means an individual who (a) contributes in a substantive, meaningful way to the development or execution of the scope of work of a project proposed for funding by DOE, and (b) is designated as a covered individual by DOE.

DOE designates as covered individuals any principal investigator (PI); project director (PD); co-principal investigator (Co-PI); co-project director (Co-PD); project manager; and any individual regardless of title that is functionally performing as a PI, PD, Co-PI, Co-PD, or project manager.

DOE departmental elements will often expand this list of designated roles, as specified in the applicable Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) and/or terms and conditions of the Federal financial assistance award. Status as a consultant, graduate (master’s or PhD) student, or postdoctoral associate does not automatically disqualify a person from being designated as a “covered individual” if they meet the definition in (a) above. See DOE FAL Research Security Training Requirements for all R&D.

Please note the definition of covered individual varies depending upon the federal agency. 

Research Security Training Requirement

All covered individuals must complete all four modules of the CITI Research Security Training prior to proposal submission. 

We expect other federal agencies will require this Research Security Training. We highly recommend all covered individuals complete this training series in CITI as soon as possible. Review Research Security Training FAQs for more information. 

ORCID iD Requirement

All covered individuals are required to include their ORCID iD in their Current & Pending Support disclosure form. They will also be required to include it in any publications as a result of an R&D award. See ORCID iDs: An Overview for Researchers.

Resources

• ORCID iDs: An Overview for Researchers

• Research Security Training in CITI 

• Research Security FAQs

• DOE FAL Research Security Training Requirements for all R&D

  • Includes definition of covered individual as well as training requirements

• DOE Digital Persistent Identifiers

Thank you, 
The Office of Sponsored Programs