Announcements

Dear Colleagues, We want to bring to your attention an important matter regarding a Foreign Assistance Review – Organizational Assessment survey. Federal agencies, including USAID, CDC, and OMB, have been contacting a variety of people at universities to complete this survey. If anyone at Lehigh receives such a request, the University—not individual researchers or departments—must complete the assessment. The Office of the Vice Provost for Research and the Office of the General Counsel will handle...

Dear Members of the Lehigh Community, We are pleased to announce that Lehigh has been designated an R1 research university by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Lehigh is recognized among the top cohort of research universities and colleges–only 187 institutions nationwide are classified as R1. Lehigh has long been known for research that pushes the boundaries of knowledge and innovation. The Carnegie designation is a national acknowledgment that Lehigh is a high-performing...

Dear Colleagues, Late in the day on February 7, the NIH released supplemental guidance setting a "standard indirect rate of 15% across all NIH grants for indirect costs in lieu of a separately negotiated rate for indirect costs in every grant.” Indirect cost rates are negotiated on a regular cycle with the federal government and are based on extensive auditing of what it actually costs to conduct research at an institution. Indirect funds are allocated...

Dear Colleagues, We are excited to announce that two new University Research Centers (URCs) will be established in 2025: the Center for Community-Driven Assistive Technologies and the Center for Advancing Community Electrification Solutions. We are also pleased to award a planning grant to further the development of a third team, the Small Cities Lab. The Center for Community-Driven Assistive Technologies (CDAT), led by Vinod Namboodiri and George DuPaul, aims to transform the lives of people...

We want to provide an important update on recent federal directives affecting sponsored research activities. While the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memorandum M-25-13 has been rescinded and federal payments for grants and loans have resumed, Trump Administration executive orders and agency-issued guidance remain in effect. Federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Energy (DOE), and NASA, have issued directives restricting specific activities within grants, particularly those related to diversity, equity...

Dear colleagues, As you may have seen, the White House Office of Management and Budget released a memo yesterday temporarily halting disbursement of funds and new awards until at least February 10. We recognize that this is causing significant confusion and stress for our research community. Federal agencies are also rewriting policies and Notice of Funding Opportunity announcements. We encourage you to keep working on proposals, while continuing to check in with agencies and your...

Dear Colleagues, This week brought a wave of executive orders and directives from the incoming Trump administration, several of which will impact research and the operations of federal agencies and departments that award grants and contracts. Notably, the NIH and the Department of Energy are currently under communication freezes, which include a pause on issuing new awards. The NIH has suspended study sections until February 1. We are closely monitoring developments in Washington. In general...

We are delighted to announce the second annual cohort of University Sabbatical Fellows. With support from the College Deans, the Provost’s Office, and the Office of the Vice Provost for Research, Sabbatical Fellows are awarded a full-year sabbatical to provide much needed time to achieve transformative growth in their research programs. Ahmed Rahman, Associate Professor, Economics. Dr. Rahman’s project will focus on the economics of education, labor, and leadership within the U.S. Navy. By analyzing...

Dear Faculty, We hope this email finds you well and that the end of the semester is going smoothly. In order to support your grantsmanship, we invite you to RSVP for our upcoming NSF CAREER panel on Wednesday, January 15, 2025, from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM in HST 211. There will be a Zoom option if needed. Starting next semester, we will also host NIH (early January) and NSF CAREER (early February) workshops. All...

Dear Colleagues, We are excited to share an update on the progress of the University Research Centers (URCs) initiative, a cornerstone of Lehigh’s strategy to grow our research prominence. Last spring, we launched the first URC, the Center for Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience, and awarded planning grants to two promising teams to further develop their innovative proposals. At the same time, we announced plans for a revised call for proposals centered on the theme of...

As part of recent university-wide policy changes, researchers are reminded that all payments to research participants must comply with the University Business and Travel Expense Policy. The Office of Research Accounting must be able to determine when any given research participant receives more than $600 in compensation within a single calendar year from Lehigh. To facilitate the tracking of total payments to research participants, investigators must maintain records of payments and ask each participant if...

The IRB has recently removed the requirement for the submission of amendments for unfunded, exempt research protocols, where the proposed change to the previously approved protocol does not affect the level of risk to participants. For more information on this policy change, please review the recently updated Exempt Determination policy. Note: funded exempt protocols, as well as all expedited and full committee protocols, will still require the submission of amendments prior to researchers making any...

Subject: New NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) – Significant Changes As communicated in the May 2024 issue of Research@Lehigh, the National Science Foundation (NSF) issued the revised Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) ( NSF 24-1) that represent significant changes for NSF researchers and administrators. These new requirements are effective May 20, 2024. A complete summary of changes can be found on the NSF website. Notable pre-submission changes include...

Lehigh recently concluded negotiations with the Office of Naval Research (ONR) for our facilities and administrative (F&A) rates for fiscal years 2025 through 2027. Under the agreement with ONR, which negotiates with Lehigh on behalf of all U.S. federal funding agencies, Lehigh’s new F&A rates are as follows: On-campus organized has increased from 61% to 65% On-campus instruction has increased from 55.76% to 59.73% On-campus Other Sponsored Activities rate has decreased from 44.6% to 38.39%...

On Thursday, Oct. 10th, the USDA completed an unannounced routine facility inspection of Lehigh's Animal Research Program. No issues of non-compliance were identified. This successful inspection serves to highlight the efforts of Lehigh's Animal Care and Use program to ensure that the use of animals in research remains in full compliance with institutional and federal guidelines and that all animals receive the highest level of care.

In September, Lehigh's research community was notified that it is now possible to submit NSF proposals using the system-to-system (S2S) function in LIRA. [NOTE: S2S is the submission of the proposal from LIRA electronically to grants.gov. For the NSF, proposals route from LIRA, through grants.gov and then on to research.gov.) Upon submission of the first S2S NSF proposal, ORSP discovered that the proposal isn't checked against NSF requirements until it reaches research.gov. This means the...

National Science Foundation Grantee Requirements – Progress Reporting August 2024 Executive Summary: Lehigh faculty benefit from federal funding, which comes with the responsibility to adhere to reporting requirements set forth in the terms and conditions of their awards. The NSF has begun to crack down more seriously on late reports and failing to submit timely reports can lead to significant delays in funding and processing of new proposals for the researcher(s) in question, as well...

Effective May 20, 2024 As of May 20, 2024, all NSF grant applications must include a mentoring plan for postdoctoral scholars and graduate students funded by the award. Additionally, each postdoctoral scholar or graduate student receiving significant NSF support must have an Individual Development Plan, updated annually, outlining educational goals, career exploration, and professional development. For more information, see PAPPG Chapter. II D.2.i(1). What are the requirements for Mentoring Plans? Must be submitted with the...

NIH has changed their proposal requirements which will be effective for all proposals submitted on or after January 25th, 2023. As highlighted in a recent NIH communication, we wanted to make you aware of these important changes, most notably the new NIH Policy for Data Management and Sharing . LTS has developed a page to help support NIH-active faculty comply with the new requirement. This new requirement identifies the need for all proposals submitted on...