Per National Institutes of Health (NIH) Notice NOT-OD-26-018, all senior/key personnel identified in Research Performance Progress Reports (RPPR) must now individually certify that they are not a party to a Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment Program (MFTRP).
Per the related NIH FAQ:
The certification statement language included in the RPPR must align with the statement within the Common Forms for Biosketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support, and state: I [insert name] certify that, at the time of submission, I am not a party to a malign foreign talent recruitment program.
The file for each senior/key person must be named ‘MFTRPcert_[Name].pdf’ without quotations, where ‘[Name]’ is the name of the senior/key person and the PDF must be flattened prior to upload.
Department research administrators should collect a signed (electronic or ink) statement from each senior/key personnel, including those from subrecipients, and attach the flattened PDFs to the RPPR in eRA Commons prior to routing the RPPR to the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) for review and submission.
The statement template is now linked on the OSP Forms & Waivers page. Subrecipients may choose to use their own compliant versions of the signed statement.
See the previous related OSP tip: How do I “flatten” a PDF?.
FEDERAL AGENCY ROUNDUP
Updates from federal agencies for the week of 02/02/2026
- NIH released NOT-OD-26-033: Adjusted Timeline for NIHs Implementation of Common Forms.
Stay up-to-date and informed by visiting the Pitt Research Executive Orders and Federal Funding website.