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If a study you’re running in Canada involves human participants, one of the first administrative steps — usually before you can even submit to a Research Ethics Board (REB) — is completing TCPS 2: CORE, the free online tutorial on the Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS2). This guide walks through what the tutorial actually covers, who has to take it, how the certificate works, and the one thing people most often get wrong: finishing CORE is not the same as getting ethics approval.
What TCPS 2: CORE is, and who runs it
TCPS 2: CORE (Course on Research Ethics) is maintained by the Panel on Research Ethics (PRE), the body jointly created by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to steward TCPS2 on the Agencies’ behalf. The tutorial is hosted at tcps2core.ca and is free to take — you don’t need an institutional login to start it, though your institution will usually want proof you finished it.
CORE exists because TCPS2 itself is a dense policy document, not a training course. The tutorial translates the policy’s core ethical principles — respect for persons, concern for welfare, and justice — along with its procedural requirements around consent, privacy, and REB review, into a self-paced format aimed at the people who actually have to apply it: investigators, students, and research staff.
Who actually has to complete it
PRE built CORE for anyone conducting or supporting research involving human participants at a Canadian institution eligible for Tri-Agency funding — which in practice means essentially every Canadian university, college, and affiliated research hospital. Individual institutions set their own local requirement on top of that baseline: most require every applicant on a human-participant research protocol (not just the principal investigator) to complete CORE and submit the certificate as part of the REB application package, and many extend the requirement to graduate students and research staff even before they have a specific protocol in front of a board.
Because the specific policy — who exactly must complete it, and how often — is set locally rather than by PRE, always confirm the exact requirement with your own institution’s REB or research ethics office rather than assuming a single Canada-wide rule.
How the tutorial is structured
CORE follows the shape of TCPS2 itself: it works through the policy’s core chapters and articles — the guiding ethical principles, REB governance and review requirements (see TCPS2 Article 2.1), free and informed consent (see TCPS2 Article 3.1), privacy and confidentiality, and specific populations and contexts the policy treats separately, including research involving Indigenous Peoples (see TCPS2 Chapter 9) and managing conflicts of interest in the review process (see TCPS2 Chapter 7).
Each module pairs short explanatory content with knowledge-check questions before you can move on. It’s self-paced and can be stopped and resumed, which matters if you’re working through it around teaching or protocol deadlines rather than in one sitting.
Getting your certificate
Once you complete every required module, the tutorial generates a certificate of completion that you can download and save — typically a PDF you can attach to your REB submission or upload to your institution’s ethics-application system. Keep your own copy rather than relying on tcps2core.ca to store a retrievable record for you indefinitely; if your institution asks for proof again later (a renewal, a new protocol, an audit), having the original file saved locally avoids having to redo the tutorial.
Does the certificate expire?
PRE does not publish a single, universal expiry date that applies across every Canadian institution. Whether your CORE certificate needs to be renewed — and after how long — is a matter of local REB policy, and institutions differ: some treat a CORE certificate as valid indefinitely once completed, others require refreshing it periodically (commonly discussed in a two-to-five-year range, though this is set locally, not by PRE) or whenever TCPS2 itself is substantively updated. Don’t assume your certificate is still current for a new protocol without checking your own REB office’s stated policy first.
Completing CORE is not the same as getting REB approval
This is the most consequential thing to get right. The CORE certificate demonstrates that you’ve engaged with the ethical principles and procedural requirements TCPS2 sets out — it is a prerequisite most REBs require before they’ll even accept a submission, not a substitute for review. Your actual protocol still has to go through your institution’s REB, which independently assesses the specific risks, consent process, and population involved in your study before granting ethical approval. Submitting a CORE certificate with an incomplete or poorly designed protocol will not get that protocol approved.
CORE also sits alongside, rather than inside, the Agencies’ separate Tri-Agency Framework: Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) — TCPS2/CORE governs prospective human-subjects ethics review, while the RCR Framework governs how allegations of research misconduct are investigated after the fact. Institutions frequently also require separate RCR training on top of CORE; the two satisfy different obligations and neither substitutes for the other.
If your institution uses its own platform instead
Some universities and hospitals have integrated TCPS 2: CORE content into their own learning-management system rather than sending researchers directly to tcps2core.ca, or supplement it with an institution-specific module on local REB procedures. The underlying TCPS2 content and the PRE-issued certificate logic is the same either way; check with your REB office if you’re unsure which version your institution expects you to complete.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get my TCPS2 certificate?
Complete every required module of the TCPS 2: CORE tutorial at tcps2core.ca (or your institution’s equivalent platform, if it uses one). The certificate of completion generates automatically once you finish, and you can download it directly.
Does the TCPS2 CORE certificate expire?
There’s no single PRE-mandated expiry date. Renewal requirements are set by individual institutions, so check your own REB office’s current policy before assuming an older certificate is still accepted.
Is completing TCPS2 CORE enough to submit my research to an REB?
No. The certificate is typically a prerequisite for submission, not a substitute for REB review. Your protocol still has to be independently assessed and approved by your institution’s REB.
Who has to complete TCPS2 CORE training?
Policy is set locally, but most Canadian institutions require it of every applicant named on a human-participant research protocol, and many extend it to graduate students and research staff more broadly. Confirm the exact scope with your own REB office.
Is TCPS 2: CORE the same as CITI Program human-subjects training?
No — they’re parallel, not interchangeable. CORE is Canada’s PRE-issued tutorial tied specifically to TCPS2; CITI is a US-based commercial training platform some institutions use for other regulatory tracks. A Canadian REB generally will not accept a CITI certificate in place of CORE unless it has explicitly said otherwise.
