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Mandatory Training Requirements

The Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense has established minimum education requirements for DoD personnel involved in human subjects research, to include an annual training with required educational topics. To ensure your compliance with these requirements, the Air Force Surgeon General’s Office provides human subjects protection training through the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) every three years. To ensure compliance on the alternate years, the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) Human Research Protection Program (HRPP) requires National Institute of Health (NIH) training (this is a much shorter training that still meets the requirements). Please read the instructions below and follow those that are pertinent to you. If you have any questions please call the IRB Administrator at 719-333-6593 or send an email to usafa.irb@usafa.edu.

Investigators who wish to conduct human subjects research on USAFA must complete the appropriate training. Upon completion of training, the certificates must be sent to usafa.irb@usafa.edu or included as separate supporting documents in a protocol submission.

Protocols that include investigators who have not had the appropriate annual training will not be reviewed until the
appropriate training certificates are received.

1. If you have NEVER taken human subjects protection training through the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI), please follow the instructions below to complete the CITI training and send your CITI certificate with your IRB submission.

1. Go to www.citiprogram.org

2. Click on “Register” in the top right corner of the page

3. In “Step 1” of the Registration you are asked to select your “Organization Affiliation”

a. Drop down options will populate as you type in the search box. Type “U.S.” and select “U.S. Air Force Surgeon General’s Office” (the fourth option) from the list that is created.

i. Please note that copying and pasting the entire Institution name rather than typing will not work. You must begin typing and then select the institution from the list provided.

4. Click “Continue to Step 2” and enter your name and email address where prompted.

5. Click “Continue to Step 3” and create a username and password, and select and answer the security question where prompted.

6. Click “Continue to Step 4” and answer the questions about gender, ethnicity and race.

a. All of the questions must be answered, but all of the questions have a “Prefer not to answer” option.

7. Click “Continue to Step 5” and indicate whether you are interested in receiving Continuing Education credit for completed CITI courses and research participation.

a. You must select either “Yes” or “No.” Neither answer is required for this training; you will need to contact your institution to determine whether CITI CE credits will be accepted to meet institutional requirements.

8. Click “Continue to Step 6” and enter the required information requested by U.S. Air Force Surgeon General’s Office.

9. Click “Continue to Step 7” and answer the questions in order to create your CITI “Curriculum”

a. Scroll down the screen until you see “Question 1.”

i. Select the radio-button next to the Group that best describes you (i.e. Investigator, IRB Member, or Research Support Personnel).

b. Scroll down the screen until you see “Question 2”

i. Select the last radio-button, “I have not previously completed an approved Basic Course.”


10. Click “Complete Registration”

11. Click “Finalize Registration”

a. This should take you to the Main Menu screen, where you will see a green check-mark and the text “Your registration has been completed successfully.”

b. Immediately below the check mark should be a blue bar with “U.S. Air Force Surgeon General’s Office” written in white. Click on this blue bar.

i. This will open the list of courses in which you have been enrolled, based on your answers to Questions 1 & 2, in alphabetical order by title.

12. If you have any trouble with the above directions please contact the CITI Support Desk for trouble-shooting.

2. If you have taken human subjects protection training through the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) in the past 365 days your training requirement is complete. Please include your certificate with your IRB submission.

3. If you have taken human subjects protection training through the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) in the past two to three years, your CITI training requirement is complete; however, your annual training is not complete. Please follow the below instructions to complete the National Institute of Health (NIH) training and send both your CITI and NIH certificates with your IRB submission.

Initial NIH training:

1. Go to: http://phrp.nihtraining.com/users/login.php?l=3

2. Click on “registration form”

3. Choose “behavioral science”

4. Click on “create account”

5. Complete the 7 modules


Renew your NIH training:

1. Go to: http://phrp.nihtraining.com/users/login.php?l=3

2. Under “Returning Users” Insert Email and Password

3. Click on “Review the Course” (if you want to review)

4. Click on “Renew my Certificate” and follow the prompts

5. Complete the 7 modules 

4. If you have taken human subjects protection training through the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) but it has been more than three years you must renew your CITI training. Please follow the instructions below to renew your CITI training and send your certificate with your IRB submission.


For individuals whose CITI accounts are NOT affiliated with U.S. Air Force Surgeon General’s Office:

1. Go to www.citiprogram.org and login to your account

2. Below the list of institutions with which your account is affiliated, click on the blue bar that says “Click here to affiliate with another institution.”

3. Click the link that says “Click here to affiliate with another institution.”

4. In the search box, begin to type “U.S. Air Force Surgeon General’s Office.”

a. As you type, a drop-down list will populate

i. Select “U.S. Air Force Surgeon General’s Office” from the drop-down list; it should be 4th

ii. Note: Copy/paste does not work in this box, you must type for the site to recognize the text

5. Click “Next” and provide the required information requested by U.S. Air Force Surgeon General’s Office

6. Click “Next” and answer the questions in order to create your CITI “Curriculum”

a. Scroll down the screen until you see “Question 1.”

i. Select the radio-button next to the Group that best describes you (i.e. Investigator, IRB Member, or Research Support Personnel).

b. Scroll down the screen until you see “Question 2”

i. Select the last radio-button next to the Group that best describes your previous IRB role (if different from your current role).

7. Click “Next” and you will be taken to the Main Menu screen, where you will see a green check-mark and the text “Your registration has been successfully submitted.”

8. Below the check mark should be a list of blue bars with the names of the institutions with which your account is affiliated in alphabetical order. Click on the bar that says “U.S. Air Force Surgeon General’s Office”

a. This will open the list of courses in which you have been enrolled, based on your answers to Questions 1 & 2, in alphabetical order by title.

9. If you have any trouble with the above directions please contact CITI Support Desk for trouble-shooting.


For individuals whose CITI accounts ARE affiliated with U.S. Air Force Surgeon General’s Office:

1. Go to www.citiprogram.org and login to your account

2. Select “U.S. Air Force Surgeon General’s Office Courses” from the blue list of institutions with which your account is affiliated

a. This will open a white and pink shaded list of courses you’ve completed for this institution, as well as a box titled “My Learner Tools” immediately below the list of courses.

3. Click on “Add a Course or Update Learner Groups,” the first link in the “My Learner Tools” box

a. This will open a new page with two questions. The answers to these questions will dictate your CITI “Curriculum.”

b. The answers to these questions do not re-set, so if you have taken a course for this institution before “Question 1” should already have an answer.

i. If Question 1 already has an answer, do not change it unless your IRB role has changed since your last training. Changing your answer will enroll you in a new CITI course.

ii. If Question 1 does not already have an answer, answer the question by selecting the radiobutton next to the Group that best describes your IRB role.

4. Scroll down the page until you see “Question 2.” At this point Question 2 is not required and I recommend skipping it.

5. Click “Submit.”
a. This will take you back to the “Main Menu” with the “U.S. Air Force Surgeon General’s Office Courses” list open.

6. If you have any trouble with the above directions please contact CITI Support Desk for trouble-shooting.

Contact Us

HQ USAFA/A9N
2304 Cadet Drive,
Suite 3800
USAF ACADEMY, CO 80840-5002

Email Address:
usafa.irb@usafa.edu

Telephone Number, HRPP Administrator
Commercial: 719-333-6593 DSN: 333-6593

Telephone Number, Exemption Determination Official (EDO) for Educationally Exempt Research
Commercial: 719-333-3277 DSN: 333-3277