What is Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI)?
From CITI Co-founders Paul G. Braunschweiger Ph.D., Professor, Radiation Oncology, Director, Office of Research Education and Karen Hansen, Director, Institutional Review Office, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center:

The Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) was founded in March 2000 as a collaboration between the University of Miami and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to develop a web based training program in human research subjects protections. In response to the June 2000 education policy announcement, the collaboration was expanded to include content experts from 10 institutions who provided the content for the first 12 biomedical modules. In addition to the "Basic" content, the CITI model provides the opportunity for institutions to post additional instructional materials specific to their institution. The first version of the CITI Course in The Protection of Human Research Subjects, hosted at the University of Miami, was rolled out to the participants on September 3, 2000. In December 2000, the CITI Course site was made available to institutions by subscription.

In Spring 2004, the CITI Program was migrated to a new software platform developed at the VA by Mike Fallon, DVM, PhD, and Stephanie Manuel, MSME. In January 2007, with the help of Dr. Fallon and Ms. Manuel a software upgrade was implemented to permit the program to broaden it's scope and to expand the courses offered to our participating institutions and organizations around the world.

The CITI Program, co-founded by Karen Hansen and Paul Braunschweiger Ph.D, is now on it's 7th iteration and includes:

• Basic Courses in the Protection of Human Research Subjects.
  • Biomedical Focus
  • Social and Behavioral Focus.
  • Refresher Courses
• Good Clinical Practice Course.
• Health Information Privacy and Security Course (HIPS)
• Laboratory Animal Welfare Courses for investigators and IACUC Members
• Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR).
  Note: NSF requires each institution that applies for financial assistance from the Foundation for science and engineering research or education describe in its grant proposal a plan to provide appropriate training and oversight in the responsible and ethical conduct of research to undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers participating in the proposed research project. See CITI Responsible Conduct in Research (RCR) Training.

A multi-language site, targeting international researchers was made available at http://www.irbtraining.org in Fall 2004. This multi-language capability has been added to the current CITI platform. A Spanish and Portuguese language site will be added in November 2007.