On 5 February 2026, NASA Grants Policy and Compliance released a Grant Information Circular (GIC) 26-02 "Research Security Training Requirements" [PDF]. In short, GIC 26-02 states that starting 5 August 2026, covered individuals (see #1 below) on federal financial assistance awards, that is only grants and cooperative agreements applicants/recipients, must certify to NASA they have taken research security training prior to submission of proposals.

This training requirement and certification does not apply to civil servants and contractors who propose to or are funded by NASA. If you are a civil servant or contractor, please read no further.

Potential proposers for NASA financial assistance funding are encouraged to take the training (see #2 below) well in advance of the proposal due date.

1. Who must take the training? Any Principal Investigator (PI) (regardless of level of effort), any CoPI (regardless of level of effort), and Co-Investigators (Co-I) proposing to spend ten percent or more of their time in any given year on a NASA-funded federal financial assistance award (grant or cooperative agreement).
2. What training will satisfy this requirement? Check with your organization,  but GIC 26-02 says that NASA will be satisfied with the four online research security training modules on the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Research Security Training website or the SECURE Center condensed version of the four modules. 
3. How does one demonstrate having taken training? Covered individuals on proposals will use NASA’s soon-to-be-updated Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support forms. For active federal financial assistance awards, submit updated forms for covered individuals as part of the regularly scheduled annual progress reports if those progress reports are due on or after 5 August 2026.

For more information see GIC 26-02 "Research Security Training Requirements" [PDF].

Please direct questions to: hq-dl-grants-policy-compliance@mail.nasa.gov and hq-researchsecurity@mail.nasa.gov.