Training
As a new graduate student, there are some training requirements which you must complete. These are mandatory. All trainings are due by October 15 for fall matriculates and February 15 for spring matriculates. These trainings include:
Responsible Conduct of Research training is online. A $75 late fee will be assessed if the online training requirement is not met by the deadline.
Responsible Conduct of Research
Training and education in the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) is an essential aspect of Rice’s commitment to maintain the highest standards for research integrity, and as such, it is considered an integral aspect of graduate education.
As a member of the Rice University community, all graduate students (including all professional Master’s students with the exception of MBA, MAcc, and MLS) are required to complete the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) Responsible Conduct of Research online course by October 15th for students starting the fall semester, and by February 15th for students starting in the spring semester. A minimum score of 80% is required to pass by Rice's standards.
The training modules required for all graduate students vary based on school and program. At a minimum, graduate students must receive training in ethical conduct of research; research misconduct; responsible authorship and publication; data acquisition and laboratory tools; conflicts of interest; the use of animal and human subjects in research; and safe laboratory practices. In addition, depending upon the academic school and type of research in which you plan to engage while at Rice, additional modules or individualized training may be required.
The Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) online training will take about 4 to 5 hours to complete. It does not have to be completed all in one session, but can be saved, closed, and restarted later. To access the Epigeum Responsible Conduct of Research Training :
1. Login into the Epigeum platform via SSO using your Rice University login details when prompted.
2. Upon your initial login, you will be required to examine and agree to the sites Terms and Conditions using the registration process. Please make sure to use your Rice email address (external email addresses are not permitted).
3. The Responsible Conduct of Research Training will be listed under My Courses.
4. For technical assistance, please see the help page or contact the Epigeum customer support team directly via the webform.
To access the IRB training, please visit https://www.citiprogram.org. When accessing CITI directly, please use your @Rice.edu email address. You are not required to request CME/CEU credits for the course(s). If you have any issues with accessing the training, please contact the Office of Sponsored Projects and Research Compliance at rw68@rice.edu. Students have the option to register for the UNIV 594 course to meet the RCR training requirements. If they have already completed or are currently enrolled in UNIV 594, it is unnecessary to verify Epigeum. This course is recognized as fulfilling the training requirement. If your department enrolls you in UNIV 594, you will need to finish the training via Epigeum and attend the semester seminar course.
Students cannot register for upcoming semesters until they have completed the training. Consequently, any late registration fees incurred will not be waived.
Lab Safety Training
Lab safety training is for the safety of the students in the Schools of Engineering and Natural Science and all others who work in labs.
New students in the Schools of Engineering and Natural Sciences and the Department of Psychological Sciences admitted in the fall must attend the EHS Lab Safety Training on Aug. 21, 2025, in Keck 100 unless other arrangements have been made for your cohort and communicated to you by your graduate administrator. You can view training requirements online here. Non-thesis master's students are NOT exempt from lab safety training. Only students in Computational Applied Mathematics & Operations Research, Engineering Management and Leadership, Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, and Industrial-Organizational Psychology are exempt from the training.
Incoming spring students can sign up for lab training here. The first available class in the spring 2026 is TBD.
All students (regardless of their program who conduct experiments in a laboratory where chemicals, biological agents, and/or physical hazards are present must take the appropriate training before beginning work in the lab. Students must attend make-up training if they miss the August session.
Failure to complete lab safety training by the deadline may result in your inability to access the lab and stipend checks being held.
Note: Anyone who will be working with human blood or tissue is required to take the Hepatitis B shots if they have not previously had it as part of their regular childhood immunizations.
Contact Environmental Health & Safety for more information.
Teaching Assistant Training
At Rice University, teaching assistants (TAs) play an important role in the success of many of the university's courses. The Center for Teaching Excellence offers an asynchronous online training course to provide TAs with the basic information necessary to perform their work in these roles responsibly. This self-paced course introduces the role of a TA and covers federal regulations and institutional policies that govern this work (ADA, FERPA, Title IX, Policy on Student-Faculty Relationships, and the Honor Code). It also provides resources for various teaching practices, including grading and working with students in office hours. To self-enroll in this training, please use the following link and click "Enroll": https://catalog.rice.edu/browse/le/courses/teaching-assistant-ta-training.
For graduate students and postdoctoral scholars teaching their own course, the CTE offers an asynchronous online training course for instructors of record. These training opportunities cover the same policies as the TA training while diving deeper into the practice of evidence-based teaching. To enroll in the online training course, please use the following link and click "Enroll": https://catalog.rice.edu/browse/le/courses/graduate-instructor-of-record-training.
Updated June 2025