The US government may soon require, rather than just recommend, that federally funded investigators, and the ethics-board members who approve their research, receive training and education in how to protect participants in human studies.

The Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) announced last week that it is soliciting comments on whether such training in research ethics should be mandatory — and asking for estimates of what this would cost grantee institutions.

“Over the past several years, OHRP has identified serious, systemic noncompliance with the requirements … for the protection of human subjects at a significant number of major institutions,” OHRP regulators wrote in its Federal Register announcement on 1 July.

Interested parties now have until 29 September to submit their comments to humansubjectstraining@hhs.gov.