NSPM-33 and ORCID: Protecting Federal Funding for Georgetown University Research

NSPM-33 is a Presidential directive requiring all federal research funding agencies to strengthen and standardize disclosure requirements for federally funded awards. In addition, it also mandates the establishment of research security programs at universities receiving federal funds.

NSPM-33 directs Federal agencies awarding research funds to establish policies related to the use of Digital Persistent Identifiers (DPIs) (e.g., ORCID) for researchers’ disclosure of information during grant application and progress reporting workflows.

It is important that Georgetown University is proactive in ensuring all faculty, staff, and students conducting federally funded research are aware of these requirements and take appropriate action.

There has been an increasing need to protect United States funded scientific research from foreign interference and exploitation, including espionage and intellectual property theft.

The U.S. Government’s National Science and Technology Council has issued guidance on implementing National Security Presidential Memorandum 33 (NSPM-33). The new guidance refers to DPIs, or Digital Persistent Identifiers, and how to integrate them into disclosure processes to enhance research security and integrity and decrease administrative burdens.

A Digital Persistent Identifier (DPI) is a unique identifier with a number or code assigned to a researcher. The number or code permanently and unambiguously identifies the researcher in a way that is easily machine-readable. Machine-readable means computer systems, and the Internet find the codes easy to read and identify. DPIs are essential to improving research systems in the digital environment. Many GU Researchers currently have and use ORCID IDs. ORCID iDs are helping the research community streamline research processes and comply with NSPM-33 guidance and requirements.

The big question, why are federal sponsors requiring DPIs such as, ORCID?

First, all federal funding agencies will soon require a “digital persistent identifier” for researchers:

“…funding agencies shall establish policies regarding requirements for the individual researchers supported by or working on any Federal research grant to be registered with a service that provides a digital persistent identifier for that individual.”   -Excerpt from NSPM-33 Guidance issued January 2022

New to ORCID?  Georgetown is a member of Open Researcher and Contributor ID (“ORCID”), a service that offers researchers a unique, persistent identifier that is free of charge, to enable researchers to manage their scholarly identity regardless of changes in name, location, career, and discipline.  Georgetown recommends that faculty, postdoctoral fellows, students, and staff engaged in research use ORCID to create a unique, persistent identifier that will remain the same throughout their career. 

Georgetown wants its graduate students – as well as its faculty and staff to be well-prepared for publishing their work and ensure they’re getting recognition for their scholarly output.  Plus, when members of the Georgetown community have ORCID iDs, it makes it easier to identify Georgetown-affiliated research and acknowledge Georgetown’s authors.

What is an ORCID iD?  An ORCID iD is your own unique identifier that ensures that all your scholarly work and research is properly associated with you and is not confused with others with the same or a similar name or initials.  Your unique identifier is a DPI that clearly identifies you and your related publications.  It allows researchers to see a complete list of a researcher’s works (or those works added to your ORCID account).  ORCID iDs are used worldwide for manuscript submissions, grant applications, patent applications, and more.  

Benefits for faculty, researchers, and student researchers.  ORCID can help you spend more time conducting your research and less time managing it!  Include your iD when prompted to do so in manuscript submission systems, grant applications, and many more and, with your permission, your information can be exchanged between these systems so you don’t have to enter it manually.  This saves you time and ensures the use of quality data that you have approved and Georgetown has certified.  Not to mention, it will save everyone time by reducing errors caused by manual data entry.

Distinguish, Promote, & Simplify your Research Output with ORCID!

• Your ORCID iD will ensure that you meet sponsor, publisher, and reporting requirements;
• Your ORCID record can save you time when you have to fill out forms, etc.;
• Your ORCID iD distinguishes you;
• Your ORCID iD persists over time;
• Your ORCID record can bolster your digital identity; and
• There are a number of tools and services that use ORCID iDs to import your works into their systems.

You may be asking, why ORCID?  Although ORCID is not mentioned specifically in the NSPM-33 Guidance, ORCID is the only persistent identifier (PID) that meets requirements stipulated in the NSPM-33 guidance at this time.

Do you have a common name or have published under different name variations and want to ensure that you receive proper credit for all of your scholarly output?  ORCID contains the same types of information that would typically be found in a CV or resume, ORCID is interoperable and data within an ORCID record can be transferred and shared between ORCID and other systems that are integrated with the ORCID API, e.g., GUFaculty360, rather than storing this information in a static document.  Learn more about Biographical Information in your ORCID Record.

Do you want to simplify the process of grant and manuscript submissions and not have to fill out the same fields over and over again?  With ORCID, experience greater ease as an increasing number of manuscript submission or grant application forms can be auto-populated when you log into their systems with your ORCID iD, for example, NIH Biosketch, SciENCV, and Open Journal systems (OJS)

Georgetown’s Libraries provide assistance and training that helps researchers understand the benefits and use of ORCID iDs.

• Main Campus researchers may contact the Lauinger Library Digital Scholarship Services staff at digitalscholarship@georgetown.edu.
• Medical Center researchers may contact Scott Dorris at the Dahlgren Memorial Library at c.scott.dorris@georgetown.edu for assistance with ORCID registration. DML offers ORCID workshops on a regular basis which provide the entire Georgetown campus community with an opportunity to take advantage of DML expertise in the use of ORCID.

Learn more about ORCID at GU.

The Dahlgren Memorial Library (DML) offers webinars, where you’ll learn about the importance of ORCID and how:

• ORCID iDs will help you to regain authority over all of your research;
• Simplify some workflows of scholarly communication;
• Quickly add your citations to your ORCID record;
• Keep your GUFaculty360 publications up-to-date by connecting ORCID;
• Use your ORCID iD to generate your NIH Biosketch.

The Office of Research Oversight (ORO) has resources to guide researchers on research data protection.  The ORO’s website contains guidance on institutional and individual responsibilities regarding data protection, data quality, research misconduct, data sharing, data repositories, data security during travel, and relevant international laws on data use and protections.

• National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM-33)
• The National Science and Technology Council Subcommittee on Research Security policy guidance document for federal funding agencies related to the National Security Presidential Memo 33.
  • Guidance around use of digital persistent identifiers (DPIs) starts on page 8 of the document (page 18 of the PDF)
• White House Office of Science and Technical Policy (OSTP) memo on “Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research”
  • Reiterates that Federal funding agencies should “instruct federally funded researchers to obtain a digital persistent identifier that meets the common/core standards of a digital persistent identifier service defined in nsmp-33 for inclusion in published research outputs.
• NSF Requirement for New Biosketch and Current and Pending Support Formats
  • NSF-Approved Formats for the Biographical sketch
  • NSF-Approved Formats for Current and Pending (Other) Support