The Rigor, Reproducibility, and Transparency (RRT) Seminar Series is a series in collaboration with the Fred Hutch Cancer Center presented by faculty from each of the several ongoing training grants at Fred Hutch and UW. Presenters include faculty from training grants at the Fred Hutch and the UW. The series is in response to NIH-mandated RRT training for trainees on training grants, F awards, and K awards. Lectures focus on a detailed discussion of common or emerging methodologies with the aim of describing strengths, limitations, and pitfalls so those employing or interpreting the data gain a realistic sense of what can and cannot be learned.
RRT Training
Many graduate students receive fundamental training in rigor, reproducibility and transparency through required graduate departmental coursework or by other means. Rigor and reproducibility training is also a fundamental aspect of mentoring and teaching research best practices to early-stage scientists.
With that in mind, our intent is to provide more advanced training for senior graduate students and postdoctoral fellows that introduces complex topics of rigor and reproducibility methodology used in the practice of research. This training is delivered via a seminar series with T32 faculty speakers who discuss the techniques and approaches they use to ensure rigor and reproducibility in their research.
Upcoming Trainings
Make plans to join us for upcoming 2026 trainings. All trainings will be held virtually from 2 p.m. – 3 p.m.
- February 3, 2026 featuring Abhinav Nath, PhD, Associate Professor and Interim Chair, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Washington
- April 21, 2026 featuring Allison Meisner, PhD, Assistant Professor, Cancer Prevention Program Public Health Sciences Division, Member, Translational Data Science Integrated Research Center (TDS IRC), Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
- June 2, 2026 featuring Kelley Harris, PhD, Assistant Professor, Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Assistant Professor, Herbold Computational Biology Program, Public Health Sciences Division, Member, Translational Data Science Integrated Research Center (TDS IRC), Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
- October 13, 2026 featuring Manu Setty, PhD, Assistant Professor, Basic Sciences Division, Herbold Computational Biology Program, Public Health Sciences Division, Member, Translational Data Science Integrated Research Center (TDS IRC), Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
- November 17, 2026 featuring Melody Campbell, PhD, Assistant Professor, Basic Sciences Division, Affiliate Professor, Herbold Computational Biology Program, Public Health Sciences Division, Scientific Director, Electron Microscopy Core, Shared Resources, Member, Translational Data Science Integrated Research Center (TDS IRC), Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
Differences between RRT and RCR training
Rigor, Reproducible and Transparency (RRT) Training has been a required NIH training topic for T32 trainees since May 25, 2020.
Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Training has been a required NIH training topic for many years. The UW Office of Research offers Biomedical Research Integrity: Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) Training for all pre- and post-doctoral researchers supported by NIH training grants, per NIH requirements:
Who is required to attend?
All trainees on training grants should check with their training grant director for required attendance. Trainees are encouraged to attend lectures outside of their field of expertise as it is likely that they will encounter data from these methods, and understanding how they work and what their limitations are is crucial, so the talks are designed to be accessible to a broad biomedical audience.
How to Participate
The RRT seminar series is held every 2 months. There are 2 ways to receive credit for participation:
1. Attend the seminar live
2. Watch the video recording of the seminar within 30 days
The number of seminars that you are required to attend in this series is determined by your T32 Program Director. Please consult with them about the number of seminars you should attend.
Receiving Credit
Trainees must complete the brief survey provided at the end of the seminar so participation can be noted by their training grant administrator. The surveys ask you to state three things that you learned from the seminar as proof of your attendance. You will then receive credit in the UW RRT attendee database.
To receive credit, you can access the recordings and survey on the UW SOM Resource Portal’s Research and Graduate Education Training Grants page.
Training grant administrators can access a web report to find the trainees who attended or watched the recording for a specific RRT seminar. The report is available at: RRT Seminar Attendance Report (UW NetID required). Access to the report is restricted to authorized training grant administrators. Please contact RGE Admin (rgeadmin@uw.edu) if you should be able to access the report but are unable to access the report.
Access Your Attendance Record
Trainees and T32 PIs who have a UW School of Medicine (SOM) portal account or UW Net ID:
- With a UW NetID: RGE Report Portal > RRT Seminar Attendance Report
- This and other training grant-related reports are accessible through the Training Grants page within the Research and Graduate Education section of the School of Medicine’s Resource Portal.
Other institutional trainees: if you have a UW Net ID or UW SOM portal account, your attendance will likely be recorded by the UW Graduate School. For others, please contact your T32 Program Director (the PI on the T32 grant) to ask how attendance is tracked for your program or institution.
For PIs & Speakers
Please contact Karen Peterson at kpeterso@fredhutch.org if you would like to have your T32 trainees participate in this series. NIH T32 PIs and F/K awardees in the Seattle region are welcome to join the FHCC/UW/SCRI RRT seminar series. We only ask for five things to join and there is no formal agreement:
- Suggest T32 participating faculty to present in the series. We have 5 seminars per year and currently represent 20+ T32s across the Fred Hutch, UW and SCRI. Please review the RRT Seminar Speaker Guidance document so you can see what kind of seminar we ask the speakers to deliver since it’s quite different from a typical research seminar. Please suggest speakers who you think could create an interesting and informative talk.
- We need at least one T32 PI name and email to subscribe to our RRT Seminar listserv. Please let Amanda Bradley at abradley@fredhutch.org know who that person is.
- Note that we don’t have the capacity to keep track of all the trainees who go on/off T32s, so we ask that the T32 PI or associated admin send out the seminar info to their current trainees. You will receive an email from the listserv about the seminar and it’s your responsibility to forward the email to your current trainees.
- It’s up to the T32 PI to set the number of seminars their trainees must attend per year and to ask their trainees to provide evidence that they are attending (i.e., UW Graduate School database).
- T32 PIs should keep in mind that this seminar series only partially meets the RRT requirement and that the T32 participating faculty mentors also have a duty to teach their trainees best practices in RRT methods in addition to any courses/workshops/etc that are required by a graduate program.